Missing Nin
by Xane Dragon
Summary: After Itachi is killed, Naruto brings Sasuke back to the village. Too bad he never thought of what would happen after that.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. It belong to this guy that loves to make us wait on the edge of out seat for YEARS for what promises to be one of the coolest fights in all of anime/manga history!

Chapter 1: Retrieval

Itachi's final taunt still rang in his ears as the fire consumed him. Although Sasuke had been able to see the Amatersau gathering, he hadn't been able to dodge the entirety of the attack. Most of his clothes had been torn off to keep the black fire from spreading to his skin, and the heat alone had blistered a good portion of his body. Still, combined with the other wounds he received during the fight, Sasuke considered himself lucky to be alive.

Although considering the damage he had taken in the battle, that wasn't going to last that much longer. It was hard to breath. The fight between two fire jutsu users had made the air unbearably hot. Darkness was starting to creep in.

""HEY I…HIM….quick…here!"

Sasuke moaned as heard someone else's voice, although with the shape he was in, he had no idea who it was.

"Ehhh! Is…-at Itachi? What…to him?"

Was it more Akatsuki? Sasuke tried to fight off the fog enshrouding his mind, but could only watch as the last dot of his sight faded away. As he slipped into unconsciousness, he wanted to scream at his fate. This wasn't fair! He couldn't die yet. There was still one more person he needed to kill.

--

Sakura panted with exhaustion as he looked down at Sasuke's body. She tried to be as fast as she could and ignore the flames that were starting to consume to building they were in. Out of the corner of her eye she saw patches of black fire starting to creep closer to her, and wondered what the hell kind of jutsu could have caused something like that.

"Sakura, we gotta get moving," Naruto shouted as he reached over to grab Sasuke's arm.

The blond boy's rescue attempt was quickly cut short when Sakura frantically slapped his arm away. "DON"T TOUCH HIM YOU IDIOT!" She looked up and saw Naruto rubbing his arm, a small bit of guilt made it through the waves of panic sweeping over her. "Sorry."

With the knucklehead taken care of, Sakura looked down at one of the most horrible sights she had seen in years. A part of her was wishing Kakashi would step out from behind one of the room's pillars and dispel the Genjutsu that she was seeing.

Sasuke was laying flat on his back with his eyes closed. Crusted blood stained his cheeks, and half a dozen other gashes ran up and down along his body, while there were signs even more had actually been cauterized by what had to have been fire jutsu. "I can't move him yet. We have no idea if there's internal injuries. We need…HINATA! HINATA GET YOUR ASS IN HERE!"

Naruto looked up as he heard something above him start to become strained. "If we don't get out of here now I don't think that's gonna matter!"

With the flames closing in around them, and the roof about to come down, Sakura closed her eyes and tried to think. They needed a stretcher or something to carry Sasuke out so his injuries wouldn't be aggravated any further. _Damnit Sakura stop being stupid, it's not like we can just make one out of thin…air_.

The medical ninja looked up to her blond partner, and then wanted to smack herself for being such an idiot at a time like this. "Naruto, make a shadow clone!"

"What? Why do you-"

"JUST DO IT!" the frantic kunoichi ordered. "AND NO QUESTIONS!"

Naruto jumped at her tone, then quickly formed the hand sign and created a copy of himself. Once the identical ninjas were standing side by side, they both looked down at the teenage girl for further instruction.

"Now one of you transform into a stretcher, and the other help me get Sasuke back on it. "AND BE CAREFUL," Sakura stressed before she bent down to grab the teenage ninja's shoulders.

--

Several minutes later, Sakura knelt over the unconscious ninja and was checking his wounds. Her previous estimates about Sasuke having internal injuries and sealing other ones with fire were right on. Still, it didn't seem as bad as Sakura had originally thought.

"So, how's he doing Sakura?" Naruto asked as he looked over the girl's shoulder.

Ignoring the question for the moment, Sakura dug in her medical bag and pulled out a clean syringe. After filling it, she stuck the needle into Sasuke's arm and pushed the liquid into him.

Naruto popped his head over her other shoulder. "What was that?"

After taking the needle out, Sakura channeled some chakra into her hands and started working on Sasuke's burns.

"SAAAAAKURAAAAA!" Naruto wined, which finally seemed to get the medical ninja's attention.

"WHAT?"

Of course, that wasn't necessarily a good thing when the pink-haired ninja was in a bad mood and on her last nerve due to stress. Naruto quickly got out of swinging range before answering. "Uh…how's Sasuke?" he asked cautiously.

Sakura just sighed instead of obeying the part of her that said to kill the boy. "Not as bad as I had originally thought." Which was strange, even when surrounded by distractions, her original diagnosis had never been as far off as it was with Sasuke's. Maybe it has just been the heat and the lack of light, combined with all the other things that had been wearing her down both physically and mentally. "I got most of his injuries patched up as soon as we were out of the building. There's still a lot of blood loss though. I also gave Sasuke something to keep him asleep.

"I don't want him waking up until we get back to Konoha."

Ten meters away, most of the other squad that had also been sent out to search for Sasuke along with Team Kakashi was sitting under another tree. Hinata had almost all her attention on Naruto and his interaction with Sakura, while Shino simply looked off into the horizon, lost in his own thoughts. Kiba sat with his back against Akamaru, and chewed his thumbnail in aggravation.

"Something wrong Kiba?" Hinata asked as she watched her fellow kunoichi look over the unconscious boy and go though a verbal exchange with Naruto that made her wish for such a close bond with the loud ninja; or at least the ability to _talk_ to him. Sure they had said a few words to each other while on a mission, but she had learned a long time ago how to focus herself in situations like that.

Taking his hands off Akamaru, Kiba looked over to where the traitor was being treated, while his wounds were still aching. "I don't like it."

Shino looked over to his comrade. "What do you mean?"

"Oh come on!" Kiba replied while waving his hands at the display. "This guy runs away from the village, joins up with the most dangerous rouge ninja that's ever come out of the Leaf, and he's just laying over there getting the royal treatment. We should be tying him up and breaking his legs to make sure he doesn't get away so we can haul him back for his hanging!"

The words coming from her comrade's mouth made Hinata flinch. "Isn't that a little…harsh?"

"It's the truth!" Kiba replied. "Do you know how close I came to dying when we tried to get Sasuke back the first time? Sakura should have just left the bastard to burn with his brother and save everyone the trouble!" He looked back at the sleeping Uchiha, and growled.

As at seemed his partner's rant had run out of steam, Shino looked over to him with a hidden expression. "That's one way of looking at it, I suppose."

Kiba raised his eyebrow at the stoic ninja's comment. "Oh yeah, what's that supposed to mean?"

Shino looked back to the sleeping ninja as he explained another view. "In the past month, Sasuke Uchiha has brought an end to two S-Class ninjas, one of which who had plagued Konoha for decades, and the other one a ninja who was left alone for years because even the ANBU didn't have a chance of stopping him. Then, there is the other menace he brought down a few days ago, the one Kakashi's talking dog identified as Deidara, another member of Akatsuki. Using that logic, we should patch him up and cut him loose so that he can keep up the good work."

"Oh come on!" Kida exclaimed. "You can't be serious. He's a rouge ninja, end of story. I joined this mission because I thought we'd finally be putting an end to this guy, not to coddle a traitor."

"That's a rather simple-minded way of looking at things," Shino replied. Which was something that described Kiba to a T. He was definitely the more…passionate kind of person that made decisions on emotions instead of logic. Not that it was a bad thing _all_ the time, but…it was the exact opposite to how Shino tried to be.

His friend's reply drew Kiba's attention away from most of Team Kakashi, and back to Shino. The way the other ninja said it… "Are you calling me stupid?"

--

Kakashi took another deep breath as he popped another crick in his neck, and then sat down. Almost immediately after he relaxed, the effects of his new Sharingan came full force. It seemed he wouldn't be getting up for another two days if his body had anything to say about it. But that wasn't really the case…such was the life of a ninja.

They still needed to hike back to Konoha, and he didn't feel like being carried there again; especially after the scene Guy caused the first time. The memory still made him shudder.

Louder than needed footsteps announced the arrival of Kurenai's replacement. Kakashi looked up to the wood element user and raised his hand in greeting. "Yamato."

The other man nodded his head at hearing his replacement name. "Kakashi, I see you're still recovering." He stood silently over the ANBU veteran for a moment, studying him. "What's troubling you?"

Yamato's question made Kakashi looked away and frown at the dirt. "It's…it's nothing," he lied; well sort of. It probably was just that, nothing.

Kakashi replayed what had happened a few minutes before they ran into the second Akatsuki. Kisame and the other three ninja with him had obviously been fighting before the others had shown up, so they had all retreated rather than fight. Which was fine as far a Kakashi was concerned, to drive the first Akatsuki off, he had needed to use the Mangekyo Sharingan.

But when the world had started to twist and melt together, Kakashi had gotten a look past the single hole in the other man's mask. _It had only been a peek, and everything had been distorted, but just for a second…I could have sworn I saw the Sharingan_.

The fact that he was even seriously thinking about such a thing made Kakashi sigh at his own gullibility. It couldn't have been Itachi, or one of his shadow clones. The man smelled different than the oldest Uchiha, and no one else was left who held that bloodline trait. Even if Itachi had a child, the man in the mask was far too old for that possibility.

Kakashi mentally laughed at himself for such thoughts. The world had been blurred, he had only been seeing an illusion of his mind's own making.

"Kakashi-senpai, I think that my squad should go ahead and take Sasuke back to Konoha. You can rest with yours tonight, and make the trip back in the morning."

Kakashi frowned as he looked back up to his former subordinate. The real meaning of Yamato's words were not lost on him. "So, you think it will come to that, do you?"

Under the other man's stare, Yamato stood his ground. "If Naruto and Sakura accompanies Sasuke back to the village, it is going to end badly," the younger man explained. He frowned at the other man for a few moments, then continued. "You coddled them too much when they were Genin Kakashi. They still have a lot of growing up to do before they're ready to face the harsh realities of being shinobi."

_So that's how it is_, Kakashi thought to himself. Slowly, the masked ninja started to rise to get up. His legs felt like jelly, and he had to attach his hand to the tree he was leaning against in order to finally stand, but he couldn't just lay around for this. "Sasuke was my student, so the responsibility falls to me."

--

Voices cut through the darkness that had enveloped him. They were soft, distant at first, but became stronger as Sasuke slowly pulled himself out of the void of unconsciousness.

"I can't believe we finally did it," Naruto exclaimed as they walked through the woods. The familiar surroundings told him the village would be in sight after just a few minutes. "We're almost home!"

As his eyes adjusted to the light, Sasuke could make out he was in a dense forest…and surrounded by Leaf shinobi. The situation had suddenly gone from bad, to worse since he had passed out in the inferno.

What had happened to the rest of Snake? Were they dead? Was that why they hadn't shown up to drag him out of the fire after he killed Itachi?

Sasuke closed his eyes, to clear his thought. Speculation was pointless. If Karin was alive, she would track him down eventually, and probably bring the others. If not…well, he had other problems to worry about right now. If these idiots brought him back to Konoha… It didn't matter, that wasn't going to happen.

Keeping his eyes half-closed, Sasuke did his bet to observe his surroundings. There were eight enemy ninja, with two carrying the stretcher he was riding on; those two didn't matter. Naruto, Sakura, Kakashi were with them, along with that idiot who was supposed to be Sasuke's replacement. The smell of a dog and the basic shapes of the two carrying him told Sasuke who the others were.

_Unless it's just Kakashi's tracking hounds_, he reasoned.

Well, that didn't matter anyway, he would still need to get away. But if they had a ninja hound, it was going to be tricky. Especially since Sasuke's energy reserves were so low. He had enough for one attack, maybe two. After that, he would need to rely on Genjutsu to distract everyone long enough to find a hiding place and mask his scent.

"Sakura, I think something's wrong," a soft voice spoke up from above Sasuke's head. "His breathing has changed."

With the time for planning run out, Sasuke opened his eyes, and let loose a burst of lighting chakra from his entire body.

Naruto spun around as he heard Hinata scream and Shino curse before the sound of a breaking jar was followed by hundreds of swarming insects. In the back of the line, Hinata dropped to the ground and Shino jumped away as Sasuke hit the ground and quickly flipped back onto his feet. "What the hell?" the knucklehead mumbled.

"Oh crap he's awake!" Kiba shouted before taking a fighting stance atop Akamaru.

_Missed one_, Sasuke thought before activating his Sharingan while Shino collected his bugs around him in a defensive mass. However, his previous estimates about having eight opponents to deal with had been off. Kakashi was leaning heavily on his own knees, and it seemed to be all he could do just to stand. Also, Kurnai was absent from the rest of Squad Eight.

As it seemed everyone around her had suddenly gone crazy, Sakura stepped forward. More than once, she had seen injured people awaken to confusion. That had to Sasuke was doing…that was the only explanation. "Sasuke it's okay. We're here to bring you home."

When he looked over to her with his Sharingan, Sakura's theory was cut down. She couldn't see any confusion or panic in his eyes. "Exactly how stupid do you think I am?"

"PRETTY DUMB ACTUALLY!" Kiba shouted as he had his dog charge the missing-nin. If the idiot was actually challenging them in his condition, Kiba was going to make sure that this guy's ninja career was going to come to an abrupt end.

Shino sighed as he watched his partner charge their prisoner. From the look of things, he didn't even notice…

"GAH!"

…that he was heading strait for a low hanging branch.

As Kiba cursed and placed his hand over his nose where the tree hit him, Shino looked down to the ground around Sasuke's feet. It was obvious that the Sharingan user had used a Genjutsu on Kiba. _In fact, we all looked into his eyes_, the bug manipulator told himself. What they were seeing could very well be an illusion. Sasuke might have already left…and the best tracker of the group was now sporting a broken nose.

This had just gotten much more complicated than it needed to be.

"What are you doing Sasuke?" Naruto demanded with a shout as he stepped forward. "We're almost back in Konoha! Go back to sleep before you screw everything up again damnit!" He frowned as he studied the other ninja. There was no way Sasuke was at one hundred percent, or even fifty for that matter. Sasuke didn't have a chance of fighting them all off.

But…there as the matter of Hinata. The Hyuga had fallen into unconsciousness after Sasuke zapped her, but looked plenty alive from what Naruto could see.

If Sasuke moved on the unconscious kunoichi, none of them would be able to stop him in time, and the Leaf ninja would either have a body on their hands, or Sasuke would have a hostage in his. Naruto shook his head. What was he thinking? Sasuke wouldn't kill Hinata.

…Right?

As she looked at her teammate, Sakura could only stare in wonder. How in the hell was he even awake at all? With as much drugs as she had put in him, Sasuke wouldn't have awakened on his own until well into the night. By then, he would have been safely put away in Konoha's hospital. "Sasuke…just calm down. We're here to help you."

Sasuke stared at Sakura for a moment. "You're actually…serious," he mumbled in a voice that the others barely heard. Naruto, he could believe…but Sakura? She had always been the brightest of the team, the fact that she actually thought…

He tried to hold it down but…Sasuke's lips curved upwards. "hehehe…hahahaha, HAHAHAHAHAHA!" He threw his head back in laughter at the irony of it all. "You idiots…hehehe…you idiots actually think…" Sasuke cut himself when he looked back to see that one of the group was missing…and Sasuke had let down his guard.

There was a resounding crack as Yamato connected with the back of Sasuke's skull and drove the boy into the ground. "That's enough out of you." He looked back up to the pink-haired kunoichi and frowned. "I thought you said you sedated him!"

Sakura ran over to her friend and checked his pulse before pulling out another injector from her bag. "I-I did. He should have been asleep for the whole day." As she looked down at Sasuke's unconscious body, Sakura sighed and ran her fingers through his hair.

Not for the first time since this whole thing began, she was starting to have second thoughts about this. After tossing some smelling salts to Kiba, who shuddered at them bit before walking over to Hinata, Sakura hefted Sasuke's body up on her shoulders. "I'll carry him the rest of the way."

If Sasuke was going to put anyone else in danger, then it would be her. Not that Sakura considered herself in any danger. Sasuke had only knocked Hinata out after all.

Ten minutes later, after they started moving again, Naruto took up position behind Sakura. Ever since Sasuke had woke up and started acting…well, crazy, the pinked-haired kunoichi had a depressed look on her face. He looked over to his teammate, and then Sasuke, then back to Sakura. "What is it?"

Naruto's question made Sakura jerk her head up. She looked at him for a moment, and then considered what to ask him carefully. "Naruto…are we doing the right thing?"

The orange clad ninja was completely thrown off track. He stumbled mid-step, and barely stopped himself from crashing face first into the ground. "Huh? What the heck is that supposed to mean?"

"Well," Sakura started unsurely. "It's just…when Sasuke woke up and saw what was going on, he…he attacked us."

Naruto just rolled his eyes. "That's cause he was just doped up Sakura. Soon as he gets all that junk out of his system, you'll see. Sasuke will be jumping at the chance to rejoin our squad."

The shinobi's words offered her little in the way of cheering up. "Really?" Sakura asked. She wasn't wanting more encouragement, just poking a hole in Naruto's theory. "Then why didn't Sasuke come back after killing Orochimaru? Why didn't he just kill Orochimaru when we came to rescue him the first time? What if he doesn't want to come back at all? What right do we have to just drag him back to Konoha and…and what? Tell Sasuke to rejoin the team, or what? We'll lock him up? Kill him?"

"Sakura," Naruto mumbled, more to himself than to her.

She simply let out a tiny laugh. "I wanted to save Sasuke from Orochimaru, and from Itachi…but he ended up not needing me at all. So…why am I doing this?" As she pushed herself deeper into confusion, Sakura replayed what had just happened her in head. "Sasuke had to of known what was going on, at least partially, and he still didn't come with us. So we just knock him out and drag him back.

"What happens when he wakes up again and decides he wants to leave?" Sakura asked.

"Sasuke wouldn't-"

"Are we just going to knock him out again?" Sakura asked without even listen to Naruto. She looked up at Naruto, and flashed him a fake smile. "Maybe we could break his legs! That would stop him from running away!"

"Sakura-"

"Then we can throw him in a cell, and celebrate about having our friend back! That'll stop Sasuke from ever leaving again," she said with false cheer.

"WOULD YOU STOP IT ALREADY!" Naruto shouted. Sakura was wrong. Sasuke wanted to come back…Naruto just knew he needed some sense knocked into him first. Sasuke had always been a hardheaded idiot. That was just the way things were with him and most guys, girls just couldn't get it. "Everything will be fine, you'll see," he mumbled.

"Whether Sasuke wishes to return or not, it doesn't matter."

Both Naruto and Sakura jumped at the voice coming from behind them, then twisted their necks back to see Sai standing there with his usual stoic expression. Naruto was about to ask him what the hell that was supposed to mean, but Sai simply pointed at something in front of them them, and both of the younger members of Team Kakashi looked forward again.

The gates of Konogakure stood before them. "Oh…we're here," Naruto mumbled.

Shortly after walking through the gates, Kiba and the others made a quick farewell, leaving Team Kakashi and Sai alone. The leader of the remaining half of the group let out a sigh, and then sat down on the ground. It was good to be home. Filling in the mission report could wait until he got the feeling back in his legs.

Sakura looked over at him for instruction, and Kakashi held up his hand to wave her off. He needed some rest before the next headache came to be.

However, it seemed there moment of peace was not to be. After hearing something clattering across the stone walkway, Kakashi looked up to see Tsunade's current rival for the power of Konoha walking out of the nearby guard post. It didn't take a genius to realize Sai had probably informed him of Sasuke's capture, and he came here to meet them before Tsunade.

But…why? That was the question. One Kakashi didn't have an answer for.

Sakura turned her head to see what had caught Kakashi attention, and frowned. It was the old man that seemed to get his kicks out of giving her teacher grief. What the heck was he doing here?

"Kakashi, my congratulations on capturing the traitor," Danzou said as he got close enough to be heard clearly without needing to shout.

The way the old man referred to Sasuke made Naruto frown. He didn't know who the old mummy was, but Naruto could already tell that they were never going to get along. "Who's the old geezer?"

Sai stepped up behind Naruto to explain. "That is Danzou-sama. He is the head of ANBU Root division."

Sakura thought of giving a much more…colorful description of the man, but refrained from doing so. Danzou was Sai's superior after all, the newest addition to their group would probably take offense. Although Sai claimed not to have emotions, Sakura knew that he must have just been good at suppressing the things and the urges that came with them.

"What is it Danzou?" Kakashi asked, not bothering to hide his tiredness for the sake of respect for the man, or his lack of respect, because he was too worn out to do so.

With the conversation being cut right to the point of the matter, Danzou nodded his head at the former ANBU. Despite Kakashi's lack of proper etiquette, Danzou didn't bare the ninja any animosity. "My subordinate reported what happened. I thought it best if my men were to handle things from here. They will escort the prisoner to the detention facility," he explained with a no-nonsense attitude.

All of a sudden, a dozen guards appeared around the four ninjas. Each one wore the mask and uniform of an ANBU, but they might as well been wearing badges proclaiming their sub-division status as part of Root.

"Prison!" Sakura shouted as she gripped onto Sasuke's body with near bone-crushing force. "Sasuke's hurt! He needs medical attention, and I'll be taking him to the hospital." Even if he wasn't, there was no way that she would be letting anyone send him into a detention cell.

Danzou looked down on the stupid girl that Tsunade had taken under her wing. Looking at her right now, he could see everything that had become wrong with the world of the ninja since the Third Hokage had taken power. The fact that such an antithesis to the ninja could call herself a kunoichi was an insult to all the hidden villages.

"His condition is irrelevant. The old man raised his arm to single the thirteen ninja under his command. "Men take the Uchiha into custody," Danzou ordered.

As he watched his men move, a small part of the old man waited for the girl or the demon beside her to try something…anything. It would make his long-term plans so much easier.

But, it seemed that was not to be, and Tsunade's appetence handed the traitor over with little fuss.

As the ANBU holding Uchiha and two more leaped off in the direction of the prison, Danzou turned to their platoon leader. "Kakashi, seeing as how you're unable to fulfill your duties at the moment, you will carry out your student's public execution tomorrow," the man with his face covered in bandages said before turning away and heading back into the village.

Authors Notes: With the Itachi/Sasuke battle postponing work on my other fan fiction quite a bit. DAMN YOU AND YOUR TEASERS KISHIMOTO! Ahem…anyway, I've decided to start of a different one. After seeing Naruto and Sakura go on and on about getting Sasuke back for God only knows how many issues of Naruto, I started thinking, what the hell is actually going to happen when they do bring him home?


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Decision

Karin frowned as she sat alone in the tree branch overlooking the village of the Leaf, and watched the scene with that loudmouth ninja and his team play out. Those ANBU idiots that had taken Sasuke away were out of her sight, but she could still detect them with her chakra sense easily enough. From the looks of things, Sasuke wasn't in any danger at the moment, which gave her plenty of time to formulate a rescue plan.

The problem was that after Sasuke had been taken a day ago, she didn't have that much manpower to work with. Or, to be specific, she had absolutely none.

Suigetsu had taken off shortly after she had told them the Leaf ninja had apparently grabbed Sasuke. Thanks to that idiot's fight with the former Mist ninja, he was in no condition to mount a rescue attempt. Karin could have forced him to stay, but what was the point? The effort would have only worn her out, and once the water freak had fully recovered, he would have just forced his way out anyway.

As for Jugo, without Sasuke around to control him, Karin didn't want to be within a hundred miles of that nut job when he finally lost it. While he had been in favor of going after Sasuke, sending him of all people into a battle and not expecting something to go wrong was wishful thinking. In the end, she had Karin him in the opposite direction of the Leaf ninja while saying she would circle around and take them from the other side. Quite frankly, Karin would be happy if the man never entered her life again.

But without those two, there wasn't much she could do. A one-woman rescue attempt was bound to fail. Karin supposed she could gather up some of Orochimaru's old followers and use them, but no one she could boss around would be of much help. Besides, that would take too long.

_When it really comes down to it, all I can do is wait_, she told herself. An opportunity might present itself if she kept her eyes and ears open. Then again, she supposed Sasuke could always escape on his own.

After letting out a remorseful sigh at her current predicament, Karin checked the time, then decided it was best to leave. The mixture of chemicals she had applied on her skin to hide her scent would be wearing off in a few minutes, and it was her last dose on hand.

--

Naruto could only stand motionless. No paralysis jutsu had been applied to him; he had been frozen by the sheer amount of shock running through his mind. The old mummy, he couldn't have said what Naruto thought he had just did. Sakura was shouting something, but Naruto couldn't make it out over the din his own thoughts.

Execution…that man had said execution.

What in the hell was he talking about?

WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON?

"NARUTO SNAP OUT OF IT!" someone far away yelled before a gloved hand slapped him hard enough to send Naruto spinning into the ground.

When Naruto stood up, he found Kakashi still sitting on his butt, Sakura standing over him like some annoyed mother with her hands on her hips, and the ANBU…the ANBU had all disappeared, along with Sai. However, it was the missing unconscious body of Sasuke that finally got Naruto back on his feet.

"Sakura? What-what the heck happened?" he asked while looking around.

The other ninja grabbed Naruto's hair to stop him from quickly looking back and forth. "You zoned out, that's what happened!" she yelled. "Those bastards took Sasuke and left. Sai too, Danzou said he needed to de-brief him or something."

Naruto blinked while the information processed. "But…but what the hell was all that crap about an execution?" He reached up to take Sakura's hand off his head, then looked past her to his part-time teacher and squad leader. "Kakashi, what the hell is going on?"

After Naruto released her hand, Sakura also looked at the man, and frowned. "Yes sensei, explain, _please_," Sakura threatened as she cracked her knuckles.

When he didn't get an immediate reply, the knucklehead ninja tried again, a bit more forcefully this time. "Kakashi-sensei, what the hell is that bastard talking about?" Naruto demanded as he jumped in front of the tired ninja's face.

After pushing Naruto away, Kakashi sighed, and matched Naruto's gaze with his one good eye. "As Sasuke's teacher, his betrayal of the village is my responsibility. To account for not being able to keep him under control, I will be the one to kill him tomorrow."

"THAT'S NOT WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!" Naruto fumed. "What do you mean execution? We went out to bring Sasuke back to Konoha so that he could rejoin our team! Not kill him!"

Kakashi merely shook his head. He kept the sadness at seeing one of his students become aware of the dark reality of a ninja from showing on his face. It was a horrible thing, the loss of innocence, but all ninja had to experience it eventually. For Naruto and Sakura, that time was a bit later than most. But, it had come all the same. "No. Despite what you thought, this has always been the goal of Sasuke's retrieval. Public execution is what awaits any ninja who turns away from the village."

Knowing what was about to happen, Sakura quickly grabbed into Naruto's arm before he could swing a punch. _You mean he knew…all this time…_ Sakura tightened the grip on what she had on her hand, and then quickly remembered that it was Naruto she was holding, and loosened up. "Kakashi," Sakura finally spoke up, her tone hiding her emotions. "What was that man talking about? Tsunade sent us to bring Sasuke back to the village. She never mentioned anything about this."

"Because we knew how you would react," Kakashi told her. He frowned at the girl standing over him as it slowly dawned on her. "Just what did you think we were going to do? Sasuke sold out his comrades for power. Do you honestly think that such a think can be forgiven?" There was more to it of course, but in Kakashi's book, that was all they needed.

The smallest hint of anger in Kakashi's tone snapped Naruto's hold on his temper. "YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS! THE HOKAGE WOULD NEVER-" No, she had sent them off with this mission. She had…Tsunade had tricked Naruto into killing his best friend! "WHY? WHAT ABOUT ALL THAT RULES AND COMRADE STUFF YOU TALKED ABOUT? WAS THAT ALL IT WAS? TALK?" Naruto demanded.

"No," Kakashi told him with an even tone. "But, if a shinobi betrays his comrades, then he deserves to die! That is a law of the ninja that I do agree with wholeheartedly." He sighed and shook his head. "Sasuke isn't your friend Naruto. He stopped being your friend two and a half years ago when he shoved his fist through your lung in the Valley of the End."

He had been hoping that the mission would have brought about another confrontation between the two, and Naruto would be forced to finally see that. "He spent two and a half years with Orochimaru, a master of manipulation that not only can bring people to his causes, but twist them in such a way that they practically worship him. Do you honestly think he's the same person you met at the academy?"

Once again, Sakura found herself needing to keep Naruto from attacking Kakashi. Despite his demands to let him go, she simply pulled Naruto close to her. "Calm down. Naruto…there has to be some other explanation." Teacher would never have done this…not this, not to Sakura, and definitely not to Naruto. "Let's go see Tsunade, there has to be something else going on here."

Sakura just wished she sounded more certain of that, and only felt as uncertain as her voice made her sound.

--

The trip to the Hokage's mansion was a short one. Neither said anything to the other. Naruto had his one-track mind set on something, and Sakura knew that any assurances that everything would turn out all right from her would be completely hollow. Naruto ended up storming past the people that called out to him in greeting, and that left Sakura making apologies in his wake.

After getting past the guards, Sakura followed Naruto as he stormed up to the door of the Hokage's office, and kicked it open. "HEY OLD HAG! I GOT A BONE TO PICK WITH YOU!"

For once, Sakura didn't look over Naruto's shoulder with an apologetic expression, but one that mirrored the knucklehead's own. At least, she did for a second, until she noticed the signs of depression on her teacher's face and body. Something had happened, something bad.

When the old woman just sat at her desk, Naruto jumped over to land right in front of it. "Hey! I'm talking to you!"

"Naruto stop it!" Shizune told the boy fiercely. Then, her expression changed to one of realization, and quickly became as downcast as her teachers. "…Oh no."

Naruto simply shot the girl an angry look. "What's all this about Sasuke getting executed? HEY! Are you listening to me old lady?"

There was a long silence as Naruto glared at the woman. Tsunade continued to simply stare at her desk. Shizune looked over to her 'little sister' with an apologetic expression, and Sakura found herself dreading what was coming.

"Jiraiya's dead," Tsunade finally told him without looking up.

The announcement was enough for Naruto to loose all of his anger. "………what?"

Seeing that Tsunade was in no condition to explain, Shizune took it upon herself. "A short time after you left on your mission, Master Jiraiya came and informed Lady Tsunade that he had found the location Akatsuki's leader. He then volunteered to go on a scouting mission, and was able to convince her to let him go. A little while ago, one of his toads came to inform us of his death."

Tsunade sighed at Shizune's interpretation of events. The old creature hadn't said that exactly, but with only one arm, and outnumbered as he was… The old woman closed her eyes as she felt the tears start to come again. _Why? Why did I let him go? You stupid fool, you told me to bet everything on your death. Don't you know I always win when something terrible is about to happen_?

"But…the old perv…I…" Naruto mumbled to no one in particular. "How did…how'd it happen?"

Once again, Tsunade remained silent, and Shizune found herself answering the question. "Naruto, there's some things Jiraiya left for you in the event of his… The toad waiting to give them to you saw everything. If you really want to know, you should ask her. She's on the second floor, third door on the left." It would also give both him and Tsunade time to clear their heads, at least, she hoped.

When the boy didn't even more, Sakura put her hand on his shoulder. "Naruto, you should go do this now. I'll catch up to you in a bit, okay?"

He only looked over at her with a dazed expression, and then finally nodded after several seconds of just staring at nothing.

As soon as the door slammed shut behind her friend, Sakura whirled around on her teacher and 'elder sister' with a frown on her face. There was still something that needed to be done, and the anger over it gave Sakura the focus she needed. "There's still something I need to talk to you about, and it is not going to wait. What the hell is going on with Sasuke?"

Shizune flinched at Sakura's demand. So that's what Naruto had been so mad about earlier. "Sakura-"

"NO! Now I understand that this is tearing you up inside, but I am not going to let you just sit here and let you feel sorry for yourself when there are things to be done!" the pink-haired medic ninja yelled. "For two and a half years I've done nothing but train, and train, dreaming of this day. Naruto and I did everything we could to try and save Sasuke from Orochimaru, and Itachi, and in the end we were the ones he needed protection from!"

Her anger spent, Sakura slumped in front of the woman and sighed. The crushing guilt that had been held back by her rage hit the girl full force, making Sakura feel as if she could barely stand. "Teacher, you're the Hokage. You have to be able to do something. Please."

Tsunade sighed and leaned back in her chair. She understood how Sakura felt. Sasuke had been Sakura's goal for these past few years, the one thing she used to drive herself forward at a pace far beyond the norm. Now that her dream had become a nightmare, she was completely lost, her willpower had been shattered.

Yes, Tsunade understood that feeling all too well.

The thing was: Tsunade wasn't completely against the end of the Uchiha clan. As the granddaughter of the First Hokage, her family had been privy to the secret history of the Leaf Village's rise, the story behind the Valley of the End, and the secret of the Sharingan. While no Uchiha had been able to use the bloodline trait to its fullest extent since the clan founder, the world would be much better off if such a thing were to disappear entirely.

"This is about more than just Sasuke, student," Tsunade told her. There were traces of despair still in her voice, but this newest crises was helping her to focus. "Danzou is attempting to use this incident to rally the council behind him, and take control of the village. He already has a great deal of support thanks to my stance on Naruto, if I intervene on Sasuke's behalf, I will be playing right into his hands."

The old cripple was certainly taking advantage of the situation to its fullest. With Jiraiya gone, a great deal of council support went with him. He had been the one old Sarutobi had wanted to be the next Hokage after the nine-tails incident, and after his death: his successor. When Tsunade took power instead, she didn't have that kind of backing thanks to the lack of an endorsement her old teacher.

"What I can do however, is at least give Sasuke a fair trial," Tsunade finished. It wasn't much, but no one would question the Hokage doing that. It would delay his death by a day at least.

Sakura's fist slammed down on Tsunade's desk and sent nearly all the papers on it scattering. "That's the same thing as doing nothing! He's a rouge ninja! A fair trial ends with Sasuke's head cut off and his body dissected for research on what Orochimaru did to him!"

A hand on her shoulder made Sakura look back to see Shizune sanding behind her, with most of the papers that had just been blown away held in her hand. "There's more at stake here than just Sasuke's life. If Danzou is able to take control of the village away from Tsunade…I can't even imagine how horrible the repercussions will be."

There was a long pause before Sakura finally hung her head down. For a moment, she tried to see things from Tsunade's vantage point. The old woman truly did seem to have lost her fighting spirit, and Sakura could understand why.

But still, Sasuke couldn't wait another twenty some years for her to get over another death of a loved one. If there was anything to be done, Sakura would need to be one to do it. "You do what you have to teacher, and I'll do the same."

After watching Sakura turn her back to Tsunade and walking out the door, Shizune turned back towards her mentor. "Why is it that I have the feeling she's going to do something very stupid?"

Shizune had a point, Tsunade reasoned. It took about two seconds to figure out just what Sakura was probably considering. Tsunade opened her desk to pull out the Hokage's seal, and a blank scroll. "Shizune, I need you to deliver a message to the captain of the ANBU."

--

After opening the ornate wooden door, Naruto peered inside the room to see the strangest frog he had seen to date. There was definitely a feminine look about her, and was she wearing…lipstick?

Beside the old toad, there was a pair of scrolls, one fat and almost as tall as he was, and the other almost twice his height. Naruto recognized the thicker one as the summoning contract for toads, but he had never seen the other one before in his life.

"Oh, you must be that Uzumaki boy," the old toad croaked. "Well, come here kid, I got some things to give ya."

--

Like every time he needed to be along with his thoughts, Kakashi found himself at the black monument that bared Obito's name.

After he had gotten some feeling back into his legs, Kakashi had gone to the Hokage's office to give his report, and then came here. But like every other time, he couldn't think of what to say to his departed friend, and so Kakashi remained silent as he stared at the marble.

A part of Kakashi was angry with himself for keeping the reason behind their mission a secret from Naruto. While there were the shinobi that ascribed to the need to know ideology that only allowed ninja to know enough to get by and complete the mission, the masked shinobi wasn't one of them. After all, if a man knew the reasons behind his actions, then he would fight that much harder to see the job completed.

But then…if Naruto had known what was going to happen, Kakashi was certain the boy would have told them all to go to hell. What it really came down to was that Naruto should have never been sent after Sasuke to begin with.

Kakashi sighed, and looked back up at the clouds. But as long as he was wishing for a change in history, why not go back to the Valley of the End? If Kakashi had caught Sasuke back then, then the boy would have only faced prison time and re-education in the way of the Leaf. New Genin running off rather than face the hash life of a ninja had been a common occurrence during the war, and ways had been invented to bring stay children back into the fold.

The memory of the mission played itself back in his head. Once again, he had failed to save a comrade with the Sharingan. It was no wonder he had imagined Obito looking down on him. _For the second time in my life, I must watch an Uchiha die_.

--

Sakura looked down at the backpack on her bed and the shoulder bag next to it. For the third time in a row she checked to make sure everything was inside. _Okay, sleeping bag, change of clothes, medic supplies, rations should last for a few days, camping gear…that looks like all of it_.

She looked over to Sasuke's sword that was sticking out of her duffle bag, something she had kept since retrieving him from that burning building. Everything in that bag had been a bit hard to get, but a few hours of looking through some of the village's old storehouse had let her find what she needed. The people of Konoha never threw anything out it seemed.

She zipped up the bag, and sighed before putting it over on the ground.

With everything ready, all Sakura could do was stand there.

Could she really do this?

…Could she really NOT do this?

Sakura clenched her fists in an attempt to take hold of her determination, and pull it up from the depths of her stomach. Tsunade's plan for saving Sasuke had about as much chance of happening as Hinata asking Naruto out on a date. If Sakura didn't do anything tonight, then Sasuke was going to die in the morning. He was going to die, because she brought him back to Konoha.

Another bit of doubt slipped into her mind and reminded her of reality of what she was about to do. She was about to abandon her friends, her teammates, her _family_; all for a boy who probably wanted nothing more than for her to shrivel up and die right now. More than likely, as soon as Sasuke was able to, he ditch her and head out on his own…and that was if he was feeling generous.

So, the choice was living in the village while having to deal with the fact that she had a hand in killing one of the closest friends she ever had, or giving up everything for a chance to save him. Just a chance, no guarantees.

But then, that really wasn't much of a choice at all.

Sakura picked up her backpack and put it in place, then grabbed the bag that held the things she had picked up for Sasuke, along with some extra medical supplies. After taking one last look at her home, she headed for the exit…

…and was stopped by a knock on the door.

"Hey Sakura, you decent?" Naruto asked before barging into her room with his hands obscuring most of his vision. After all the horror stories the old pervert told Naruto about getting caught peeping, he had no intentions of making the same mistake his master had. As to the getting caught part anyway, Naruto had no intentions of giving up the pastime of watching naked girls.

Sakura flinched at the sudden appetence of her teammate. "N-Naruto? What're you doing here?" What the heck was even doing in her HOUSE? Didn't he have ANY manners?

…Oh yeah, of course he didn't.

The ninja in question sighed in relief, and disappointment, when he saw Sakura was indeed fully clothed. "I couldn't sleep, so I took a walk around the village to think, and saw your light was on. I thought you were having the same trouble and…well, I thought…you know."

_Oh…Naruto_, the girl thought before setting everything down and taking a seat on her bed. A part of her wondered why the hell he had to show up now. Leaving Naruto right after one of the few people that believed in him from the get go just died was on the top of the list of reasons not to go.

Sakura absolutely hated herself for choosing between them at all. But, she reminded herself that Sasuke was going to die, and Naruto was just depressed.

It still didn't make things any easier…especially when the blond was stand right in front of her with the same depressed expression on his face from before.

She blinked at noticing the large scroll set across his back; it looked like the same one Jiraiya sometimes wore. Sakura sighed, and motioned for him to sit next to her. "Do you want to talk?"

A joke popped into his head about Sakura actually inventing him into her bed, but Naruto couldn't bring himself to say it. Instead, he just nodded, and sat down next to her. "I talked to Ma toad…she's the one old Lady Tsunade said was waiting for me," he clarified after seeing her confusion. "She told me a lot of stuff."

Lots of stuff didn't even begin to cover it. Aside from the toad summoning contract that Naruto was now responsible for, the old frog had given him a brief explanation about the giant rollout poster that controlled his demonic seal. Although, perhaps brief was too strong a word. The old amphibian had merely explained what it did, not how to work it. When he had asked her about that, she had said that the only three people who knew that were the Third and Fourth Hokages, and Jiraiya himself.

The there was what she said about the guy who'd killed the old man. That had been a real shocker.

Sakura hoped that he had been told it had at least been quick. A stupid consolation to wish for, but all she could do under these circumstances. "Naruto…I'm so sorry."

The girl's hand reached over to hold Naruto's, and he smiled. "Back when we went on our first trip, and he was teaching me the Rasengan. I…I really started to get into it. Not the training part, but…" Naruto paused to let out a sigh. "There was this one town we were at, and I saw this dad and his kid buy one of those popsicle things that's really two that you can pull apart, then break it half an share it with each other. It…it got me feeling real down because I had missed out on stuff like that. Then, later that day, when I was all tired from training, he brought one to share with me.

"I think…I think that was the first time in my life that I actually _knew_ what it felt like to have a father."

Sakura gave him a little smile. "Hey what about Iruka-sensei, you keep saying how you and him are pretty close, right?"

The question seemed to brighten him up a little. "Well…yeah," Naruto admitted. But, it wasn't quite the same. Never having a parent of his own, all Naruto had done was speculate during those times when Iruka had treated him to ramen. Those times were special, and he did look up to Iruka in that way for the most part. It was just…that time during the Rasengan training; it was like Naruto had been given physical proof or something.

For some reason, Naruto felt a bit lighter just being next to Sakura. It felt good to smile a little bit, despite what had happened. Not wanting to be brought down again so soon, he looked around Sakura's room for something to joke with her about. This being the first time he had actually been in it, he was a little disappointed at the lack of embarrassing things, or even a tiny mess.

Then, something in the corner caught his eye. "Hey, what's with the bags? You going somewhere?" Naruto joked.

Reading Sakura's flinch as proof that he had found something, Naruto looked back at the things. Maybe she was one of those people that just took forever to unpack or something. Not something to be really fidgety about, but then again, girls _were_ touchy about the strangest things.

"That's weird, I don't remember you carrying two bags," he told the girl. As Sakura froze in what looked like fear, Naruto wondered if she would kill him if he looked in her stuff. Then he just figured injuries would heal, and jumped towards the mystery pack.

"NARUTO, DON'T YOU DARE!"

_What is it, your laundry_? Naruto thought as he opened the thing up, and froze.

A black shirt with the red and white paper fan insignia of the Uchiha clan was right underneath the wooden sheath of the sword that Sasuke had been carrying with him.

_Sasuke…_ Naruto blinked at the image, and the memories it brought to mind. Sasuke, when the old lady had mentioned Jiraiya, Naruto had forgotten all about him. Grief had pushed everything else out of his mind.

"Sakura…what're you doing with this?" Naruto asked with more than a bit of dread showing on his face and voice. He looked back at the girl with an eyebrow raised up questioningly.

The girl sighed, and then looked back at Naruto with a resolute frown on her face. "We both know the answer to that Naruto."

With his suspicions confirmed, the bit of dread Naruto had been feeling quickly became outright panic. What the hell was going on? What was Sakura thinking? If Sakura and Sasuke ran off…No! He didn't even want to think about that.

"But…but," Naruto replied as he tried to find a reason to return Sakura to the land of the sane. "Sakura, I thought you said Tsunade-"

"Look! Teacher does have a plan to save Sasuke, and it might have worked with the old Hokage, and under normal circumstances. But this isn't either of those!" Sakura told him in harsh tones while keeping her voice down. "That crutch walking, one-eyed bastard is trying to usurp control of the village. Him and Tsunade are going to have it out over this, and with a paper-thin defense at best, Teacher is going to loose. That means Sasuke dies!"

After taking a breath to calm herself down, Sakura continued in a much more level voice. "I'm going to make sure to get him out of there before that happens. Just…please don't tell anybody until tomorrow or something."

Naruto frowned and crossed his arms as he looked down on the pink-haired kunoichi. "I can't believe this."

With the other ninja's expression as it was; Sakura tightened her fist. A quick blow to the gut and a touch to the back of Naruto's neck with her chakra focused in the right way would put Naruto to sleep and give Sakura plenty of time.

"How could you do this without telling me?" Naruto demanded.

Sakura quickly clamped her hand down on his mouth. "Shut up you idiot! Do you want to wake everyone up?" A rather stupid reason for Naruto to be quiet considering that at least one of Sakura's parents must have been awake to let Naruto in.

"Sakura-"

"Shush!" the kunoichi ordered fiercely as she held a finger up to Naruto's lips. Once Sakura was finally certain that Naruto wasn't going to start yelling again, or even try and stop her, she removed her finger, and sighed. "Naruto. Just…just stay here tonight. When my mom comes in tomorrow, just say I knocked you out or something. I've got to get going."

As the girl got up turned her back to him, the blond ninja reached out to grab her arm. "Hold on a second!"

"Naruto-"

"You think I'm just going to let you do this-"

Sakura tightened her fist. She really was going to have to do it. It wouldn't be that bad, he'd be awake in a few hours. Part of her screamed not to do it, that Naruto needed her. Another part told her just as loudly that Sasuke did as well. It either was one, or the other. She hated it!

"-and not take me with you?"

Naruto's question stopped Sakura cold. She looked back on the boy. For a small moment, her heart soared with the declaration that he was willing to go with her. But, the reality of the situation came crashing down on her. She couldn't ask him to do this.

While Naruto had been the one championing Sasuke's retrieval the most, Sakura had been the one to make it happen. She had defeated Sasori and got him to give her the information pertaining to Sasuke's location originally. That in turn had lit a fire under Naruto, which had eventually led to tracking down Itachi, and eventually finding Sasuke.

If Sakura had never started the ball rolling, they wouldn't be at the point they were now.

"Naruto, let me go. Then just go to sleep," Sakura ordered in a whisper.

"I'm going to let you do this alone," he told her.

"Naruto!" Sakura replied as she spun around and slapped his arm away. "Don't you get it? After I do this, I'll be a missing-nin, just like Sasuke! I can never come back to the village. If you come with me, your dream will die. Naruto, if you come with me, you will NEVER BE HOKAGE!"

With Sakura spelling out the situation for him, her declaration struck him harder than any blow. For the first time in his life, Naruto was speechless. She was right of course. Now that he actually stopped to think about it, Naruto had never thought of what would happen when he actually got Sasuke out of the detention facility.

…Just like he never thought of what would happen when he brought his friend back to Konoha.

If he went in to break Sasuke out and they got discovered… No, even if they got away clean and not a single person saw them do it; everyone would know Naruto would have a hand in it. At best, it would go back to those days like two years ago, and at worst…he'd be taking Sasuke's place in a cell.

Sakura let out a silent sigh of relief as she saw Naruto slump with the heavy realization. While the reality of what he had been about to do sunk in, Sakura took the opportunity to collect her things, and then headed to the door.

"Fine."

Naruto's voice made Sakura turn around and look back at the boy. She frowned in confusion. "What?"

"I said fine," Naruto clarified. He looked back up at the girl next to the window with determination in his eyes. All in all, it had taken him a total of ten seconds to reach his decision. "If being Hokage means that I'll have to sell out my best friend…then I don't need it!"

"…N-Naruto."

"Come on, we have to go and save Sasuke…for real this time," the teenager said before grabbing Sakura's arm and pulling her out the door along with him.

The emotional part of Sakura told her to stop him, just use her super strength to fling the boy back and knock him out; it was for his own good. All he would have to do was wait around for a few years for those idiots on the council to die off. Then when Naruto's generation came to power, the generation that believed in him, the position of Hokage would be his for the taking.

But then, that was the same voice that told her simply bringing Sasuke back to the village would make everything right again.

She quickly crammed that voice into the back of her mind to shut it up.

Instead, Sakura listened to the more rational side of her mind. So Naruto was going with her. Maybe it was for the best. If Danzou really did wrestle the power away from Sakura's teacher, Naruto would be spending the rest of his life inside a very cold, dark, and lonely cell.

--

An hour's worth of travel gave Naruto plenty of time for second thoughts. While such things usually went against his choice of lifestyle, this time he couldn't help it.

Naruto was about to betray The Village Hidden in the Leafs. He didn't make any excuses, or try to dress it up. In a few hours, fail or succeed, there was no way he would never be able to return to Konoha again. Even worse, all the people he had been able to gain acceptance from would hate him once more.

It was ironic really. When Naruto had first started chasing Sasuke, he had done it because he wanted to go back to the way things used to be. Now, things were going to do that, just...things were going to go a bit further back than Naruto had intended.

As they cleared the forest and Naruto could make out the prison's location, he started to wonder if he could really do this. If he just stood by and let Sasuke die, no one would be able to question his loyalty to the village, not even those old geezers on the council. When they passed on, which looked like it was going to happen any day now, Naruto's claim to the Hokage title would be assured.

Still, in the end, Naruto knew he couldn't go though with it. Sakura was counting on him. Plus, when it really came down to it, Sasuke was the first connection Naruto had ever made, and the most important to him.

Naruto cleared such thoughts from his head as they reached their destination.

"Well, this is it," Sakura said as she looked down over the rocky slope, then turned back to face Naruto. "Are you sure about this?"

After running up next to his partner, Naruto looked over the edge of a gigantic crater, and studied the layout of Konoha's High Security Facility. Just from seeing it from the outside, Naruto could tell why he had never heard of anyone escaping the place; and why Sakura had asked such a question.

Konoha's prison was a small fortress, built at the bottom of a crater with a steep cliff, and set atop a lake of boiling lava. The only way in was a tower on the far side of the pit. Built right on the rim, it had a bridge half a kilometer long that connected the building to the main facility.

The actual jail was in the center of the lava. The building took up nearly the entire island, and had a work yard for hard labor in the back. Naruto found himself wondering just what kind of work people could be doing in this place, but quickly pushed such thoughts to the side. He couldn't afford to become distracted now.

"Do you remember what I said?" Sakura asked as she handed the large duffle bag with a red cross on it over to Naruto. If anyone recognized him, which was pretty much a guarantee Sakura could just pass him off as her assistant when questions were asked.

Luckily, Sakura had served duty at the jail's clinic a few times before, so she knew the basic layout and security procedures. Her presence there wouldn't cause suspicion, and they would be able to get in without any problems. After getting Sasuke, escaping would be a bit more time consuming with Naruto added into her original plan, but still doable.

"Yeah," Naruto answered as he watched the bridge to the prison fold up and retract.

The heat coming off the magma pit hit the two ninja full force as a gust of wind blew across their faces. With both their minds, set, the two shinobi headed around the mouth of the fiery lake, and towards the end of their lives as Leaf Ninja.


	3. Chapter 3

-And now, a note from the author-

OH MY GOD! YOU KILLED JIRAIYA! YOU BASTARDS!

Well, that said, I can't say I haven't seen it coming for a while. After all, the laws of epic stories say that the mentor of the main protagonist has to get killed off by the main bad guy, and at the same time gives his pupil that little bit needed to win the final battle. Still, it was a good death scene, better than most…maybe a little too Obi-Wan-ish.

Chapter 3: Escape

The three medical ninja of ANBU Root division stood around Sasuke's unconscious body, all unmasked and dressed in normal medic uniforms. After unpacking their equipment and preparing the subject for surgery, the leader of the group injected the traitor with one of three filled syringes. "Are you positive this will keep him under long enough?"

"Judging from the…artist's report, he has a…resistance to normal sedatives. I made sure to add some…extra ingredients in order to keep that ability…busy," one of the other medical ninja replied. "But…we'll need to administer the counter to the drug…otherwise he'll…die after ten minutes."

The head medical ninja shrugged. There was time for that later. But with the treasure trove in front of them, they couldn't allow for any mistakes. "Set up a life-preserving barrier, then hand me the scalpel. I want to take a look at his muscles first, then we'll move on to dissecting the organs."

--

Sakura carried her backpack, while Naruto had his summoning scroll tied to his back and carried the duffle bag she had also packed. They both had their arms crossed as Sakura waited for the prison guard across the desk to finally notice her. The fact that he didn't react to her presence right when she entered the building actually made Sakura hope that he was being incompetent instead of rude, it would make things so much easier in the end.

After reaching the limit of the rather short supply of patience she had at the moment, Sakura tried a different approach. "Hey…HEY!"

The incompetence possibility quickly gained more weight as the ninja suddenly looked up from his magazine and let out a tiny scream when he saw her, then fell back in his chair and banged the back of his head against the ground. When the slacking idiot picked himself up, Sakura found herself waiting another ten seconds before he finally asked the obvious question.

"Can I help you…miss?"

Sakura hefted up one of her bags so he could see the medical emblem on it before explaining. "I'm here to perform a physical of the prisoner Sasuke Uchiha."

The ninja guard rubbed the back of his skull as he looked down at the sheet on his desk for the appropriate information regarding the person she named. When the man suddenly looked back up without even getting to the page where Sasuke's name was written, Sakura reached behind her for a kunai.

"Oh yeah, the sleeping guy with the black hair," he replied. The guard thumbed at the large steel door to Sakura's left, then pressed a button on his desk to open it. "Hey you're late. All your buddies showed up a few minutes ago to start working on him. They're in the high security area, bottom floor, cell thirteen."

A bit of nervousness swept through Sakura's mind as she listened to the directions to Sasuke's cell. _There's another group of medics here_? Had Tsunade anticipated her movements and sent ninja to stop her?

No, the guard had said medical ninja…although, if Tsunade thought she was keeping Sakura from doing something really stupid, she would just try and sweep everything under the rug by using people she trusted. Anyone could put on a medic uniform after all.

Still, the plan was holding together so far, maybe it was just a coincidence. "Come on," she told her partner in crime.

Naruto walked to the door, and glanced down at the ground beneath them while the bridge was being extended. The Konoha prison's first line of defense was a simple, but effective one. Surrounded by a pit of lava that was impossible to jump across, the only way in and out was an extendable bridge that could only be lowered from the station outside.

As soon as they were inside, the two ninja went through another checkpoint, and into the main holding cells.

Walking through the hallways of the prison, Naruto took two seconds to decide that he absolutely hated this place. The walls were made of a dark red stone, and the cells sere little more than small rooms for one or two inmates with bars on them. Barely enough light to make out anything lit the halls, and Naruto saw that only a few shinobi made patrols.

_I wonder what's holding them in their cells_, he thought after looking at one of the empty chambers. Metal bars wouldn't keep any shinobi Naruto knew locked up. Maybe there was some kind of trick to it that he just couldn't see.

There was no way this place would be able to hold Sasuke for long. He would get out of his cell given time, and judging by the height of the guard tower on the prison's island, gliding across the lava in his second form would be simple.

Naruto hated the fact that only added to the reasons for killing the teenager.

They went down a flight of stairs at the end of the hall, and then another, and another. On the third set, Naruto ran up to Sakura's side. "Hey uh Sakura, have you…been here before?" She seemed to know where she was going.

"A few times, but never this deep," Sakura told him. When it seemed he wanted a better explanation, Sakura rolled her eyes. "Since I'm a Chunin with medical and combat abilities, I was assigned to work in this place's clinic every now and then. It was nothing too bad; just treating cuts and bruises that the inmates would get once in awhile. Still, I know a lot of the security procedures and the basic layout."

Before Naruto could ask another question, they reached the bottom floor. It was a simple hallway with no lighting, judging by the pegs on the wall, there were supposed to be two lanterns, but only one was present. The doors that held these prisoners in their cells were sold metal with slits at eye level to look though, and had seals stuck to the ones with occupants. One in the middle was open, and more light than what a lantern could generate was coming out.

Naruto looked over to Sakura, and frowned at her expression. "What is it?"

"There's supposed to be a pair of guards down here," she told him. Two Jonin were supposed to stand guard at the stairs and not move for anything. "Something's wrong."

--

Sakura carefully set her bags down as not to make a sound to alert whoever was in the room while Naruto crept up to the metal door. He peered through the small seam on the side of the hinges, and then held up three fingers for Sakura to see. After putting on her gloves, Sakura nodded that she was ready.

"HOUSE KEEPING!" Naruto shouted as he leapt into the room and created half a dozen shadow clones.

When Sakura followed him in, it seemed that most of the work had been done, and there was some kind of barrier jutsu that was evaporating. While three Narutos were dealing with two of the medics, Sakura rushed the third and punched him in the gut hard enough to knock the air out of the man.

As the last of the medical ninja fell to the ground, Sakura turned around to look at Naruto. "Housekeeping?" she asked with a raised eyebrow before becoming too distracted to listen for his answer. Something much more important deserved her attention.

"Hey, a ninja always needs to say something cool when he makes a surprise attack on the enemy," Naruto told her. "It distracts them and…is that drool running down your mouth?"

When Sakura didn't reply, Naruto looked behind him to see what had Sakura so mesmerized, and screamed in horror. Sasuke was lying on a thin metal table, unconscious, and completely naked. He looked back to Sakura, then traced the path of her eyes.

"SAKURA, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Naruto demanded as he jumped in front of the girl to block her view.

The pink-haired kunoichi blinked, then frowned as Naruto ruined one of her childhood fantasies. He glared at her, and after fighting off a blush, she glared right back. "Hey I'm a doctor! It's alright if I see this kind of stuff!"

Naruto let out a startled cry as Sakura shoved him into the nearby wall hard enough to crack it. _You're just as big a pervert as me, aren't you Sakura-chan_? Naruto asked to himself before pulling himself out of the Naruto imprint.

After shaking off his dizziness, Naruto jumped back into of Sakura's face. "Sakura come on, we've gotta get moving!"

With the mesmerizing spell caused by Sasuke's naked body broken by Naruto, Sakura return to her right mind. _He's right_, she thought to herself in depression. But…she just needed one more look.

Sakura shoved Naruto out of the way again, and moved her gaze back down at the table.

"SAAAAAAKU-"

"Shut up," the medical ninja told him in a no-nonsense voice as she carefully studied Sasuke's unconscious body. All of the burns and wounds he had when we dragged him out of the fire were gone, but…_ Those marks on his arms are fresh_, she surmised.

Naruto blinked as he watched Sakura examine the assorted medical equipment that those guys had brought in. He didn't see what was so special about it, there were a bunch of needles, scalpels, some tiny bottles with those rubber caps for holding medicine while a doctor drew it out with a needle and junk, and a large jar filled with more liquid, along with a much smaller one same with what looked like the same stuff.

After looking at the labels on the little bottles for a few seconds, Sakura's eyes widened, then her expression turned to one of anger right before she walked over to grab one of the medical ninja and hoist him up to her face. "How far did you get before we came in?"

The medical ninja simply looked at her with a blank expression. He was older than her, maybe a little younger than Kakashi. There wasn't any fear or defiance in his eyes. In fact, Sakura felt more like she was being ignored than challenged.

Sakura sighed, of course it wasn't going to be that easy. She wasn't an interrogator, but… "Naruto, take the medicine bottle on the end and fill the injector in the middle up all the way, and toss it to me," she ordered.

Still wondering was what going on, Naruto looked for the stuff Sakura described, and grabbed it. He took a quickly look at the half-full syringe, and then back to his teammate. "But, it's already got stuff in it."

"Not enough, fill it all the way," she told him. After receiving the item from Naruto, Sakura bent down and jabbed it into the neck of one of the unconscious ninja.

Naruto blinked as he watched Sakura jab it into the guy that was propped up against the wall. "Uh, what is that stuff?"

"Don't worry. It's just a muscle relaxant," she told him with an even tone.

Finally, the medical ninja spoke. "Pfft! Yeah right." He turned his attention towards Naruto and frowned when he only stared back with a blank expression. "Are you stupid or something kid? Your friend here is fixing to murder a fellow Konoha shinobi."

Sakura frowned as the idiot she was holding started to play on Naruto's doubts. The urge to smack him around a little came up, but she resisted it. Such an action would only tell Naruto that was exactly what was going on. Besides, she still needed this guy to talk.

"S-Sakura? What're you doing?" The hesitation in his voice told Sakura that he at least wasn't completely appalled by the idea. "You said it was just a relaxant."

The medical ninja smirked as he saw his opening. It seemed the other kid wasn't so sure about this whole thing as his partner. "Don't you know anything? Yeah, when only two or three CCs of that stuff is put into the body, it will relax the muscles and help with cramping. Four to six will leave a person almost completely paralyzed. But twelve? That much will stop the heart from beating and kill whomever it's pumped into.

"Come on kid, you're smart," the man continued, a bit of confidence entering his voice as he saw the boy's determination start to waver. "All you got to do is stop your friend here, and I'll make sure you get off the hook. Kids your age make stupid decisions all the time. It's not too late to stop before you get in too deep."

Sakura closed her eyes and cleared her mind as the man's words started to get to her as well. She needed to clear her mind and focus on the objective. "Don't listen to him Naruto. Do you know what these people were doing to Sasuke? Judging from everything they brought, after they got through cutting him up, they were going to remove his Sharingan for transplantation."

"W-What?" Naruto stuttered, "but…but Sasuke's trial isn't even until tomorrow!"

The medical ninja smirked. That's what these stupid kids thought he and the others were doing? Danzou was right, the new generation was nothing but a bunch of simple-minded fools. Well, if that was the case, then he could let them keep thinking that. "What's your point? We don't actually need to kill the boy to examine his organs you know. With cellular regeneration, we can cut open a body, keep it alive, then take organs apart and put them back together when we're done. It's much more effective than simply taking apart a corpse."

The man's explanation made Sakura shake with rage. Such procedures had numerous side effects. Even if Sasuke had gotten off the hook with Tsunade's help, he would never have been the same. If anything, Sasuke would have been little more than a cripple with years taken off his life.

But anger was good, it gave Sakura the focus she needed.

"Why?" Naruto growled.

"What? Are you serious?" the medic asked with a smirk. What were the normal ninja being taught nowadays? "Orochimaru was a genius at human modification, and this boy holds every one of his secrets. Aside from his cursed seal, the Uchiha's body has been heavily experimented upon and enhanced. Muscle density, regeneration, a resistance to poisons, reflexes, even the nerves relating to his sense of touch, all of it has been upgraded; and that's only what we could discover in the first few minutes. If we could learn how to copy just half of what Orochimaru did, our army would triple in strength."

Sakura had heard all she could take. "Okay, that's enough of that. Tell me what kind of sedatives you put into Sasuke, or I'll kill your friend."

The man stood silent. He looked down at Sakura's hand holding the injector, and frowned. What she was playing at was obvious of course. There was no time to perform a proper interrogation, if she was even skilled in that sort of thing to begin with. Instead, she was playing on one of the few weakness of Konoha ninja: the desire for the well-being of one's comrades.

It was too bad for her that he subscribed to the philosophy of a true shinobi.

"Go right ahead." Then, the small flinch she made at his statement gave the medical ninja even more reason to smile. "But of course…you're bluffing."

And then he saw Sakura inject the drug.

The medic frowned as he saw the little girl pulled the empty syringe out. She flicked the needle, drew in some air, then blew it out to make sure the thing was empty. "There's still time to save him you know," she said in an even voice. "I could draw most of it out before it takes effect. Just tell me what I want to know. I'd say he's got about ten seconds."

He looked over and saw the kid in the yellow jumpsuit just standing there, watching her.

"Eight seconds…"

The girl walked over and started to fill another injector with muscle relaxant, dropping the man to the ground as she did so. He supposed rushing over to save the other medic with his own skills was possible. The blond would be more than willing to help him with… The ninja frowned as he looked over to the other kid. The blond…

"Now it's four…"

Finally, the medical ninja sighed, and shook his head. "You know…if you're going to use a Genjutsu, then you should at least make it look like your friend over there is in character."

Sakura frowned at the man's stubbornness, and then broke the illusion. Her image returned to being in front of the other ninja, holding him against the wall with one hand while the other was holding onto the syringe in the other ninja's neck. _So much for the easy way_.

The medical ninja let out a tiny laugh. "So much for your loyalty to your friend," he sneered. "You two are so pathetic, you can't even-hey!"

"Sakura!"

As the empty hypodermic needle was pulled out of the talking man's leg, Sakura stood back up to look him in the eyes. "Now, seeing as how it went in your leg, I'd say you have about fifteen to twenty seconds before your heart stops beating. Tell me what I want to know before then, and I just _might_ save you."

Naruto ran up and grabbed Sakura by the shoulder. "What're you doing? That much will kill him, you said so!"

"We don't have any choice," the girl told him with a frown. Then, she looked back towards the man who had been about to ruin Sasuke's life, if not kill him outright, and clenched her fist. "And just so you know this isn't an illusion." Sakura channeled her chakra, and kicked his knee.

The sound of smashed cartilage rang in the man's ears. Although the tranquilizer kept him from feeling anything, he already knew that any hope for work in the field just disappeared.

"What did you did to Sasuke?" Sakura demanded evenly. "I don't want to kill you. But, if there's a chance that I will accidentally poison Sasuke because I used the wrong medicine to revive him, then I will slowly take you apart, and leave you in the same state that you would have left him. Now, tell me, or the next thing I destroy will be your hands, and any hope you have of ever performing jutsu again."

She looked back at her partner. "Do you have a problem with that, Naruto?"

Naruto pushed down the sick feeling this whole thing was causing in his stomach, and shook his head. If it was really a choice between this guy and Sasuke…

After taking a second to quickly consider his options, the ninja finally sighed. He was a valuable asset to the village after all; he couldn't allow himself to die. "Because of the boy's regenerative abilities, he can throw off most sedatives. We had to use a combination of chemical N-32, and T-73, mixed with normal anesthetic."

_T-73_? Sakura thought as she translated the medical jargon into normal speech. _But that's tox_- "Naruto! Get my medical bag, now!" She looked back to the other man and frowned. "You'd better hope I can get him fixed in time to get that stuff out of you."

--

A Naruto poked his head around the corner of one of the prison's hallway corners, then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

A ways back down the hall, Naruto opened his eyes as the images his shadow clone saw were transferred into his mind. "Okay, coast is clear," he said before helping Sakura lift the crate she had summoned to place Sasuke in.

He looked down at the oversized crate and Sakura's bags that were placed on top of it. Although the seals placed upon it were fake, just ink and paper, the whole thing felt a little too much like the first time Sasuke had been taken from the village. All they needed now was a guy with two heads, and a spider-man to make the mock group complete.

"So, what happens when we get to the top floor?" Naruto asked.

Sakura took in a breath, and tried to sound as confident as she could. "Don't worry. This kind of stuff happens here all the time. A prisoner dies of a disease, and his body is taken outside to be tossed in the lava. No one opens the coffin to keep everything contained, so they won't see that Sasuke is still breathing."

"Oh, well that makes sense…if we were wanting to kill him!" Naruto exclaimed as he turned around to face Sakura with his own features enlarged by anger. "You said you had a plan!"

The coffin banging into the ground echoed throughout the lower levels of the prison, cutting their argument short. Naruto laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head at his mistake, while the other conscious member of their group just glared at him.

Sakura sighed and rubbed her forehead to calm down. "Yes, I did have a plan for getting out. But it just involved me and Sasuke, and had to be conscious!" She looked up at the ceiling moaned at how unfair this all was. Although Sakura was considered by many to be a genius, her brilliance didn't include the ability to analyze situations on the fly and rework her plans like Shikamaru could.

_Okay Sakura think,_ she told herself. _I already gave Sasuke the antidote, do we go back to the bottom cells and wait till he wakes up_? How long would that take? What about the other medical ninja? She knocked them all out, but one might be awake by now. What about the Jonin guards, didn't they report in every now and then? How long would it be before someone came down to check on them?

For that matter, what the hell happened to them anyway? Two ANBU just didn't decide to abandon their posts for no reason.

She shook her head. _Okay, forget that plan_. _What else can we do_?

_Could we fight our way out_? Sakura wondered. Naruto could make shadow clones to deal with both carrying Sasuke and attacking, while Sakura…_ On second thought, me going on the offensive in this situation isn't such a good idea_. While hand-to-hand combat would be advantageous in such close quarters, Sakura's attacks tended to leave holes in the walls and craters in the ground when she missed. _If something went wrong in prisoners started escaping…I don't want to be responsible for that_.

_But then again, we'd already be at the exit…_ But, the controls for the bridge were on the other side. Once they refused to dump Sasuke's casket, things would start looking suspicious. Hiding it with Genjutsu was out, the guards checked for that sort of thing in case of a prisoner trying to walk out under an illusion.

"The bridge," Sakura mumbled to herself as she thought the problem over. _Somehow, we'd have to get someone on the other side to lower it before we leave. I can't force them…I couldn't even bring myself to do more than hurt that bastard who almost crippled Sasuke._

_Wait a second_,_ force them…_

_Force…_

Sakura looked up back at her companion. "Okay, I think I have an idea."

--

Kotetsu Hagane messed with the bandage on his nose as he made his rounds in the hallways of Konoha's prison. It was a dark, dreary, boring job…but at least it carried a bit more dignity than his usual post as Hokage gopher. Not much, but in a job like this, Kotetsu would take was he could get.

"OUTTA THE WAY! MOVE IT OR LOOSE IT! NINJA WITH A BODY COMING THROUGH!"

The Chunin guard looked up at the racket that was echoing throughout the jail. He blinked as the source of the shouting came into view. It was that kid Naruto and the Hokage's apprentice running down the hall and carrying…a sealed coffin?

Not giving any heed to the kid's warnings, Kotetsu stepped into their path and held up his hand. "Hey, just what is going on here?"

After skidding to a halt, the hyperactive ninja looked up to the other man's face. "Hey what're doing? You want to get infected or something? Outta the way! Outta the way! I gotta hurry up and ditch this thing so I can wash my hands before I catch what this guy had!" Naruto shouted as he ran in place.

Sakura sighed and rolled her eyes. "Naruto would you settle down, I told you the seals will keep the disease from spreading."

"Oh yeah sure, that's what YOU say Sakura!" Naruto replied with an angry shout. He looked down at his stomach and groaned. "I can already feel my insides being eaten away by some bacteria or something!"

"THAT'S NOT EVEN WHAT HE DIED OF IDIOT!" When the other ninja didn't settle down, Sakura looked over to the man blocking their way. "Sorry about him. Tsunade put me on medic duty for this place tonight, and Naruto needed to talk to me, so I brought him along. We found a fresh corpse in one of the cells and I drew the short straw when it came time to choose the garbage man…or woman I guess."

The whole explanation had an air of practice about it, and made Kotetsu wonder just how many times the Naruto kid's loud mouth got them stopped. "Carry on," he said after a few moments of letting the Genin run in place. The humor blondie added helped lighten the place up, if just for a moment.

As soon as they were behind the guard's back, Naruto smirked. "Hey you were right Sakura, this is easy."

"We aren't to the check-in station Naruto, that's the only time they're going to check with the physician on duty to see if I reported this."

Naruto simply nodded as they came to the exit. Like last time, the guy across the counter was back to reading his magazine. "Buddy! Open the door and lower the-"

"HEY! STOP THOSE TWO! They're trying to sneak a prisoner out!" a voice shouted from down the hall.

_How in the hell did they-oh never mind_, Sakura thought as she looked away from where their pursuers had come from to the front. "Naruto we're skipping step two!" Sakura yelled as she looked around the hallway.

She needed something to block the guards coming after them. If she stomped on the ground and collapsed the floor, they could still just switch to running on either the ceiling or the walls. Then there was the matter of how many prisoners would escape because of the damage she caused. Despite her soon to be status as defector, Sakura had no wish to actually hurt anyone, and that's exactly what would happen if some of these criminals got loose.

A second later, she felt the weight of Sasuke's box taken off her hands as four Naruto clones picked the thing up. The real one ran in front of her and formed his hands in the cross hand sign again. "I'll slow them down a little, you do what you said you were gonna do," Naruto told her.

Sakura nodded in agreement, and two dozen more Naruto clones rushed at the oncoming mass of Chunin coming up the hallway. For her part, Sakura turned around and jumped over Sasuke's box, towards the exit. She clenched her fist and channeled a much chakra as she could into it before slugging the door.

Considering the fact that the object blocking her path was a six-inch thick metal plate of tempered steel, most normal people would have broken their knuckles, and probably shattered a few fingers if they had hit the thing as hard as Sakura did. However, as the technique that her teacher taught her allowed Sakura to put more force into her physical attacks than a charging elephant, or any other living creature on the planet for that matter, a thick steel door would have been blown off its hinges and crumbled like a tin can.

Which was why Sakura was staring at it with a dumbfounded expression when it simply stood there…completely unharmed.

_A barrier_? Sakura thought as she blinked at the appearance of the thin energy field that flickered to life in the space between her and their escape route. After shaking off her surprise, the medical ninja frowned at her own stupidity. _Of course they're going to have something like this you idiot_, she told herself. It made perfect sense, the complete lack of seals on the doors above maximum security was just stupid. Any one of the prisoners could escape from this place, and yet Sakura had never heard of anyone breaking out of Konoha's prison.

Sakura sighed. _So much for not letting prisoners escape_, the girl told herself as she crouched down to the floor. "Naruto! Tell your clones to jump!"

"Huh?" Naruto asked as he made two more shadow clones to replace one that had been destroyed. All in all, Naruto was doing much better than he had expected. Only three clones had been hit, and they had taken out two of the guards that had been coming after them.

Of course had Naruto realized that pretty much every ninja he had faced in his shinobi career was a Class-A level threat or higher, he would have been able to figure out that his view the ninja world when it came to skill was a _little_ slanted.

When he saw what Sakura was about to do, Naruto flinched. "O-Okay, okay got it!" Whenever the kunoichi caused those miniature earthquakes, Naruto always felt like he was going to loose his lunch.

As soon as Naruto's feet left the ground, along with the clones holding Sasuke's coffin, Sakura slammed her fist into the floor. The resulting impact cracked the walls around them and broke the ground apart, sending the two shinobi, plus many copies of one of the ninja, falling to the floor below.

Just as she was hoping, the barrier stopped at ground level. After regaining her footing, Sakura charged forward and punched the wall in front of her full force. The entire building shook with the impact. However, the end result was considerably less than she was hoping for. All she did was create an impression with her fist that was only a few centimeters deep, with numerous cracks around it.

Sakura frowned. "Damnit, nothing but solid granite." She looked back to her partner. "Naruto we've got a problem! There's nothing behind this wall!" She looked up at the hole they had made, then over to the remaining ceiling. From Sakura's estimates, they weren't on the other side of the barrier, so knocking another hole in the roof wouldn't be any good.

The original Naruto turned around and nodded. After looking at the obstacle for a few seconds, he got an idea. "Sakura switch places with me," the ninja shouted as he ran forward and formed his shadow clone hand sign to create another duplicate of himself.

After the kunoichi got out of the way, Naruto started generating chakra in the palm of his hand to begin his signature move. When the size of the ball filled his hand, he and his clone spread themselves apart and continued to increase the proportions of the swirling mass of chakra; the variation of the Fourth's jutsu that Naruto had created with Jiraiya's coaching. "ULTIMATE RASENGAN!"

An attack the size of a small car crashed into the wall with a loud bang, and started to drill a hole in it; just like Naruto had seen during the first demonstration of the completed technique over two years ago. A few seconds later, the Rasengan burned out, but Naruto had made it a good meter into the rock.

Sakura blinked at the display. "Wow Naruto, that's…pretty impressive," she admitted. Although whether it was the technique, or figuring out a way to use it in such a manner, Sakura wasn't sure.

After turning around Naruto, scratched the skin above him lip and smirked. "Ah its not so great. There's tons of stuff this technique can be used for. One time, the old man got this bunch of girls mad at us while we were on a boat going down a river, and used it like an engine to escape!" Naruto never would have guessed a bikini model team would have been that good at swimming; he had just though they wore the things for looks alone.

_That's…not so impressive_, Sakura thought as a large drop of sweat rolled down the side of her face. She sighed, and she shook off the distracting thoughts. "Just do that one more time!"

"You're not getting the chance girl!"

Sakura jumped back in time to avoid the ninja from dropping down on her. As he swung around and threw another punch, Sakura turned her body to avoid the attack while stepping inside his defense. She then raised her hand up underneath his jaw, and flicked him in that spot.

While the shinobi's body flew upwards to smack into the ceiling, and then fell back to the ground, Sakura just shook her head. _Guess that explains why he was the doorman_, she thought before stepping over his unconscious body.

When Naruto finished his second attack and almost cleared their escape route, Sakura ran forward and punched the ceiling of the hole he had made. This time the stone broke apart and flew away from the point of impact; just like she had expected the first time. Sakura stepped back to avoid falling debris, then ran up the escape route when everything was clear.

After Sakura helped Naruto out of their quickly dug passageway, he turned around to see the last three clones consumed by a fire jutsu that filled most of the hallway. "Sakura, company's coming!"

The kunoichi waited for Naruto's clones to carry Sasuke's unconscious body out of the hole, then slammed her fist into the ground again at a diagonal angle. As the tunnel caved in, and the metal doorway fell into what had become a gaping hole, Sakura watched her barrier extend to block the newly revealed area.

As he watched the other ninja glare at them from the other side of the force field, Naruto couldn't help but raise his hand and wave goodbye. "See you later losers!"

"NARUTO COME ON!" Sakura yelled from outside the doorway as she continued towards the still raised bridge.

Naruto just sighed, and then turned around to run after Sakura and his four duplicates. Right as he caught up to her, the teenager looked behind them to see three more shinobi jumping off the prison's lookout terrace. He created a trio of shadow clones to intercept the kunai they each threw, then responded with a barrage of shuriken as soon as his clones went poof.

The shuriken flew past the three ninja, only causing a few scratches as it nicked their arms and legs. Still, it did cause each of them to curl up to protect their vital points, and that in turn made them land off balance. Three more shadow clones rammed into them at that moment, and took the group down.

"Sakura, I'm getting a little tired here," Naruto shouted before he tried to catch his breath. Sweat trickled down his face, and he started to notice just how hot it was on top on this stupid pit of lava.

How many clones had he made now anyway? Fifty? Eighty? Naruto tried not to let the thought distract him from the mission. Still, he wished that this could have been done after he had gotten a chance to sleep. They hadn't even brought Sasuke home more than six hours ago for crying out loud!

Not paying attention to Naruto's complaining, Sakura slammed her fist into the ground, then jumped to her left and did it again, and again after jumping again. She then backed off while the ground connecting the bridge to the island started to collapse, and jump kicked the metal thing so it would fall into the lava instead of back onto her.

With their new wave of pursuit dealt with, Naruto and his clones followed Sakura when she jumped onto the quickly melting platform as the magma ate away at it. Naruto and Sakura landed fine, but in order to avoid damaging Sasuke's transportation, the shadow clones ended up being crushed underneath it, and were dispelled.

Sakura looked around their raft, then over to Naruto. "You've got about a minute to lower the other half of the bridge," she told him before grabbing onto the boy's jacket.

He looked over to Sasuke's coffin, and gulped. "Uh, about this part of the plan-"

"JUST GO!" Sakura yelled before she tossed Naruto with all of her chakra-enhanced strength that she could manage.

Flying through the air, Naruto let out a girlish scream as he passed over the lake of fire, and sailed to the other side. After passing the edge of the cliff and being guaranteed a landing on solid ground, Naruto put as much chakra as he dared creating another group of shadow clones.

More than three dozen Naruto copies appeared in the air to meet the group of four guards that were stationed at the bridge control station. Although a good many were cut down as soon as the fight began, the sheer number of them gave Naruto a free hand to do what he needed. He turned around, and directed two shadow clones to catch the crate with the fake seals that Sakura had thrown sometime after she saw him land. The copies ran over to where the shadow of Sasuke's coffin was on the ground, and stood under it as the shrouded patch of earth started to grow larger. The thing landed on top of them and erased the clones from existence, but the box was unharmed. The two bags holding their traveling gear came next, and was followed by the toad summoning scroll.

However, without any clones to catch them, Naruto quickly found himself at the bottom of a pile.

After getting back on his feet and creating another clone to watch over Sasuke, Naruto ran inside the building with the bridge controls and looked around.

The entire place was just one small room, sporting numerous security monitors that displayed various levels of the prison, an empty birdcage, and a control panel with more buttons and dials on it than Naruto cared to count. He examined the machine for a moment, then sighed and hung his head low. "Oh crap."

"Naruto! Hurry up damnit!"

Sakura's rather bossy cry for help made the knuckleheaded ninja snap back to attention. "Well, when in doubt…" he mumbled before closing his eyes, then reaching out to the board and choosing something at random. When the only thing that happened was an alarm starting to sound, the ninja quickly panicked and started mashing buttons as fast as he could.

Down on her quickly disintegrating raft, Sakura gulped as the melted rock slowly crept up towards her feet. "Any time now Naruto," she mumbled and looked at the motionless bridge.

Sakura stepped back to avoid getting burned, and covered her mouth to try and stop the scolding hot air from getting in while using her other hand to heal the damage she was already starting to sustain. _Hurry up idiot, I can only keep up for so long_!

When the bridge finally started to move, Sakura leapt for it and grabbed into the edge just when it came into range. As smoke rose from her gloved hand, Sakura sighed in relief that the fact she had the things on, and quickly pulled herself up. Seeing that Naruto was already waiting for her, she ran and grabbed some of their luggage. "Come on Naruto!"

"Uh…wrong me," Naruto's voice announced from behind her.

Sakura turned around to see Naruto standing there, and then looked back to the shadow clone. She sighed, then smacked the clone and watched it disappear in a cloud of smoke. She watched Naruto blink as the information was absorbed. "Oh, okay," he mumbled before grabbing Sasuke's coffin and heading towards the woods.

As they reached the trees, Naruto looked back to see that most of his clones had been destroyed. Still, it seemed no one was going after them yet; the guards probably wanted to take s\care of all the clones first to avoid being hit in the back with a kunai. "Sakura, we may have a problem."

"Yeah I saw," she replied. "Can you make more? We need to get some more distance between us and them if we hope to get away."

Naruto shook his head. "No, not that. I think there may have been a messenger bird in the guardhouse." That was the only explanation he could think of for the empty cage.

_Oh, that's just great_, she thought with a frown. "Well, even if it is going to arrive at the village this instant, we've still got plenty of time. It's going to take them at least an hour to send out a squad, and another one to get here. We'll just have to pick up the pace a bit."

Against her better judgment, Sakura reached into the bag on her belt and pulled out a pair food pills. After throwing one to Naruto, they both tossed the tablets into their mouths and bit down. Even with the extra energy, her body still ached from the strain of having chakra channeled through it for hours on end.

--

An hour after their escape, the two former Konoha ninja were moving through the branches of the trees. Neither could tell sense any sign of pursuit, but Naruto had announced the destruction of his last shadow clone some time ago. It seemed that the last line of defense for escaping prisoners, or the first one for people assaulting the prison, had been much more skilled that the guards posted inside.

"Naruto slow down!" Sakura shouted as she watched the orange-clad ninja pull even further ahead of her.

Five meters ahead, Naruto looked back to his friend carrying most of the luggage, and rolled his eyes. If she couldn't keep pace with him with all the extra weight, then she shouldn't have volunteered to carry almost everything.

Then again, if he had as much weight strapped to his back as Sakura did, Naruto was pretty sure he wouldn't even be able to make it up to the branches.

Finally, he just slowed his pace until the kunoichi caught up, and then matched his jumps with hers. He still didn't see how she could be so slow though. Even with the extra weight, Sakura could have easily been moving even faster than he was through the trees. "Hey Sakura, what's the deal? Can't you just make longer jumps?"

Sakura blinked at Naruto's senseless question. "Huh?"

"You know…" Naruto paused, trying to put his idea into words. "You got your super strength and all. Can't you just make really long jumps like you do with your punches?" He knew from personal experience that the punches Sakura threw in combat were much more powerful than the everyday smacks that sent him flying.

"You do it with your arms all the time! How hard is it to change from using chakra to give yourself super strength in your arms, to doing the same thing with your legs?"

The surprise that came with what Naruto said nearly caused Sakura to miss the branch she landed on. _Naruto…you may be a knucklehead, but when you get an idea…it's an idea_!

Still, screwing around with a technique when they might be caught at any moment…was that really such a good idea? Sakura knew it wouldn't be as easy as Naruto made it sound, but if she could make leaps with the same amount of foce she did for her punches…

She looked over to the scroll Naruto was carrying, and then to Sasuke's coffin residing on her own back as well as the two bags; one hanging on her shoulder and the backpack that was hw being carried in hand. "Okay but land first. We need to make some adjustments."

A few minutes later, Naruto was starting to have second thoughts about his suggestion. Sasuke's box was secured to Sakura's back, with all their traveling equipment behind it. As for Naruto himself…he grabbed onto Sakura's neck as she held him close to her with both arms. "You know, maybe I should just summon a frog or something," he mumbled.

"This was your idea! How can you be having second thoughts?" Sakura demanded. As if everyone wouldn't notice a thirty-plus meter toad jumping around.

Naruto just gave her his usual goofy grin, and then frowned when she bent her legs in preparation. "Hold on a second!" Without letting her ask for an explanation, Naruto quickly formed his most-used hand sign, and summoned a pair of shadow clones. One was a normal Naruto, and the other was an exact duplicate of Sakura. "After we leave, these two can head off in a different direction."

Sakura blinked, two brilliant ideas in one night…Naruto was on a streak. When she overcame her surprise, Sakura quickly channeled as much chakra into her legs as she could, and released it all at the moment her legs pushed off the ground.

"Hey Sakura, do you think I should make any mor-AAHHHHHHHH!" Naruto screamed in Sakura's ear as the two of them shot off into the air. In an instant the two teenagers flew past the tops of the trees and into the night sky.

Unwisely, Naruto decided to look down. This quickly gave him cause to increase the volume and pitch of his terrified yells. He wasn't quite as high up as Gama-Bunta used to jump, at least he HOPED he wasn't, but it was still high enough to cause a fall that would turn both of them into red smears on the forest floor.

Luckily for the two of them, Sakura had realized this fact the moment they exited the tree line.

Unfortunately, she hadn't thought of a solution to their problem, and her mind was still preoccupied with something else.

_OH CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP_, Sakura mentally screamed as her jump finally hit its apex, and quickly started its decent.

_I can't believe it, I'm really gonna die! AND I HAVEN'T EVEN SEEN SAKURA NAKED YET_! "I LOVE YOU SAKURA!" Naruto cried. With his last words said, Naruto simply closed his eyes, and wanted for the end.

The sudden deliration, as well as the fact that Naruto had stopped screaming in her ear finally gave Sakura the silence she needed to focus. _Okay think Sakura, think! Ground approaching fast, and you need a way to land that won't get you and everyone else killed. Stupid Naruto and his stupid ideas! This'll teach you to listen to…_  
She shook her head furiously to clear her thoughts. _No! Think, just think. Okay…we need something to cushion the landing or slow our descent. So what can I use? I can't make hand signs with Naruto in my arms, and neither can he with this death grip he has on my neck, all I can do is focus my chakra._

_Maybe something like Neji's defense? Would that even work under these circumstances_? Sakura just sighed and shook her head. What was the point? She couldn't even emit chakra from enough places on her body, much less rotate to roll with the landing.

But, did she really need to cover her whole body?

Now that she thought about it, all Sakura really needed was a quick burst at the moment of impact. There would still be some damage, but nothing too…crippling. At least that's what she hoped, because the ground was approaching much too fast for her to think of another idea.

After taking a deep breath, Sakura focused her chakra into the soles of her feet and raised them up just a bit. When the ground came in range, she kicked out both of her legs to touch the forest floor. The impact sounded like an explosion tag going off next to Sakura's ear, and she found herself standing in the middle of a crater that made the grass on level with her eyes.

The near death experience, combined with the massive outpour of her energy quickly took its toll, and Sakura panted as she fell on her butt, dropping Naruto, Sasuke's crate, and all their stuff in the process. _Oh man, channeling my chakra into my legs for speed was one thing, but releasing it all at once for superhuman jumps, then using it again to cushion the landing…there had to have been a better way for us to throw off persuit_.

The sweat collecting all over her body made Sakura groan. If Naruto made _one_ comment, it wouldn't be a toss that sent him flying this time. She wiped the perspiration from her forehead, and finally managed to slow her breathing. "Well, that should give us a good head start. I think we gained enough time for a rest. Especially with that false trail you made with your shadow clones."

Naruto looked up at what little he could see of the starry sky through the trees. He couldn't quite believe it. They had actually done it. Him and Sakura had actually managed to sneak into Konoha's detention facility, grab Sasuke, and fight their way out with no major injuries.

And…it had all been caught on tape.

The memory of seeing the security station made Naruto groan as the realization hit him. He really couldn't go back now. Hell, Kakashi, Tsunade, Sai…everyone would be trying to hunt him down and do the same thing they did to Sasuke.

The teen reached up to touch the metal part of his headband, the one Iruka had given him.

_Iruka-sensei_… Naruto felt another wave of depression hit him. He would never be able to see Iruka again, or Konohamaru, or anyone else from his village ever again.

But at the same time, Naruto knew that if he had simply decided to stay in the village at the cost of Sasuke, he would have never been able to live with himself. Being an outcast was nothing new to him, he had been one all his life. Plus, it wasn't as bad as when he was younger, Sakura was with him…and as soon as Sasuke woke up…well…Sasuke would be waking up, Naruto supposed that was the important thing.

As soon as he heard Sakura's comment, he looked at her like she had gone nuts. "Head start?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow. "I think we did hole days worth of travel in half an hour! That was worse than riding on Chief Toad!" He jumped to his feet to try and continue the rant, but as the world had yet to stop spinning, Naruto found himself quickly back to lying on his back.

Sakura rolled her eyes at Naruto's over the top estimation. Still, it _had_ been pretty far. If Sakura could work out how to aim and control the landings better, she really could cover a days with of travel in hours. But, there were more important things to talk about right now.

Escaping impending death had really lightened her mood. "So…you love me, huh?" she asked with a smirk.

The expression on Naruto's face was simply priceless, and for the second time tonight, Sakura wished that she had packed a camera. She had the sudden urge to kiss him just to see his reaction.

Sakura's mind came to a screeching halt. _Did I just…_She froze as the mental image replayed itself in her head. She pictured herself kissing Naruto, wrapping her arms around him as she pushed him the ground and they rolled around doing things that should wait for at least a few years…

…and…

…Sakura found herself not completely opposed to the idea. This in turn caused her to freeze up completely.

There was a long silence as the two teens just stared at each other.

_Oh man_, Naruto thought. _Me and my big mouth_! _That was near-death experience stuff, you can't count that_!_ Why's she acting all weird all of a sudden anyway_? _Sakura was ready to throw everything away to save Sasuke_. _Now I'm supposed to just put the moves on her or something_? As he continued to stare at her, Naruto wished for something, ANYTHING to happen and get him out of this.

_NO! BAD SAKURA, BAD, BAD SAKURA_, she berated herself. _Why the hell did I have to push it_? _Why couldn't I just smack him on the head like I always do_? She knew the answer of course. Her stupid teenage hormones had decided now to kick in, and the crappy sense of humor that was starting to rub off from Naruto showed up at the same time to start it all. To top it all off, Naruto finally decided NOW of all times to shut up instead of saying something to ruin the moment. _Who's ever listening, I'd REALLY appreciate it if you did something to get me out of this_…_please_?

…

…

…

Then, the moment was finally broken by the sound of wood being splintered, and the chirps of birds filled the air. Both Naruto and Sakura felt wooden chips falling on their head, and looked over to see that Sasuke had apparently awoken, and blown his transportation apart with his electric energy field.

The other ninja of the former Team 7 was mostly covered in shadow and standing with his back hunched over, surrounded by their camping gear, and Naruto's scroll. What little illumination there was, came from his Chidori Nagashi, providing a blue coloring to the surrounding woods area.

"That'll work," they both said in unison, then looked at the other in confusion.

Sasuke slowly stood up to his full height, and glanced around. He took note that only two ninja were here guarding him, and were the only two in sight. A quick glace around was all he needed of make sure of that with his Sharingan.

It seemed like Team Kakashi was the only one who was around, and even then, the leader of the group was missing.

Shaking off the surprise, Naruto stood up and took a defensive stance. "So uh, same as last time?" he asked. Knowing Sasuke, he would probably try and kill them before even noticing that things were different.

_Okay, never mind Naruto, I'm back to being a Sasuke girl all the _way, Sakura told herself as she looked upon the newly awakened ninja. With the question distracting her from more…erotic thoughts, Sakura stood up. She immediately regretted it, her legs wobbled like crazy; the effects of the landing still hadn't worn off. It took everything she had just o keep from falling flat on her face. "Actually, that time he had been under the influence of anesthetic, badly wounded, and completely out of energy. Now, he's fully charged, completely healed, and I gave him the antidote for that junk they pumped into his system an hour and a half ago."

A few feet away, Sasuke stood in a crouched over position. He still felt a little groggy, and there was something else that felt odd, but he just couldn't place his finger on it. "Naruto…Sakura…" the boy growled out in a tone that could no way be mistaken for a friendly greeting.

Naruto moaned. So now he was going to have to try and convince Sasuke they weren't dragging him off to his execution again in the middle of a fight. It wasn't even two against one really, Sakura was completely worn out, and Naruto had to admit that he wasn't feeling all that fresh either.

But before they died, there was something he _really_ needed to take care of. "Um…yeah. Look, before we start the big fight scene. Could you uh, please put on some pants?"

Sasuke frowned as he glanced down at himself, then over to the others. From the looks of things, both of them looked completely exhausted. So, there way no way either would be able to jump him in time if he lowered his guard a little.

Then there was the fact that he was naked. That was…odd.

Still maintaining a strait face, Sasuke cleared his throat, then carefully looked aground; glancing to the left and right as he looked for said apparel while keeping an eye on the other two ninja. "Uh…where exactly would they be?"

"Yellow bag about a meter behind you," Naruto told him while looking away and pointing in the general direction.

Not taking his eyes off either of the ninja, Sasuke slowly stepped backwards, then bent down to pat the ground with his hand until he found what he was looking for, and pulled it in front of him for some small amount of cover before opening the thing. After seeing that Naruto was telling the truth, he sighed and looked up at the other two ninja.

Something was definitely wrong here. Sakura and Naruto were alone, and now that he had time to study his surroundings, Sasuke saw they were in the woods near Eastern side of the Leaf Village, when had run into Itachi, they had been in the far Western regions of the Fire Country. Plus, Kakashi and that other idiot weren't around. Even if the other team split off, the team leader would have remained. Then, there was the stuff he saw in the bag. "What's going on?" Sasuke finally asked with a frown.

"CLOTHES FIRST! EXPLANATION LATER!" Naruto shouted as he jumped up to point to the bag.

Sasuke rolled his eyes at the idiot's demand, and started to get dressed. Aside from Naruto's demands, it seemed the only person who could probably give him a straight answer wouldn't be talking until he covered up anyway.

-The Village of Rain-

Konan stood by silently as she watched her god at work. Despite the numerous battles and heathens she had seen him slaughter, the sight before her was what truly affirmed her faith: the re-creation of human life.

But still… "Pain, are you certain that you wish to use this body as a vessel?"

"The damage isn't too extensive to be repaired, and my other one is out of reach," the god replied. "Besides, this one does go with the set I've managed to create."

On the table beneath the two Akatsuki, Jiraiya's corpse lay with its eyes closed and its remaining arm crossed over its chest. "In fact, you could say he completes it," the freaky-eyed man said as he looked down on the corpse of the former Sanin.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Vengeance

-The day before-

Sasuke stood behind his brother's throne with his sword run through both the stone chair, and the man that was sitting on it. "Now, before you die, I have one question," Sasuke said before he put into words what had been bothering him for a few years now.

"Oh…that," Itachi managed to gasp out as the blood trickled out from his mouth and chest. "Well, you see…" With little life left in him, Itachi gave Sasuke his answer the best he could with what little time he had remaining. The words came through in an almost inaudible whisper, and the man's younger brother strained to hear.

As Itachi finished telling Sasuke what he wanted to know, the older Uchiha activated his enhanced bloodline trait. The black fires of the Amatersau washed over his body, and his last thought was that he wouldn't even get to see his little brother die. Then, he exploded.

-Present-

"…and so we landed, and the motion must have finally jarred you awake," Sakura told Sasuke as she finished explaining just how Naruto, Sasuke, and herself had ended up like this.

Naruto had been quiet throughout the whole explanation. After Sasuke had gotten dressed, and Sakura had started laying everything out for him, Naruto had taken off Jiraiya's scroll, and started to fall into a depression again; or as close to one he got anyway.

The campfire crackled as one of the logs burned all the way through, and Sakura found herself pushing the two halves close together with some of the unused kindling before throwing the small stick in to the flames. They had made their camp in the impact crater Sakura had created. It was wide and deep enough to fit all of them comfortably, and helped hide the light of the fire. Sitting on the other side of the small blaze, Sasuke seemed more interested in the shirt he now had on than her story. "I uh…didn't have anything your size, so I looked into storage and found a few things that belonged to you," Sakura told him.

"It's Itachi's," Sasuke told her in an even tone.

"Right, fuel to the fire it is then," Sakura replied before she reached towards him to take the thing off, only to have Sasuke hold up his hand to stop her.

"It's just a shirt."

Another long and pregnant pause soon followed. Sakura looked at Sasuke, Sasuke looked at his clothes, and Naruto had a blank look as he stared at the scroll Jiraiya had given him. The whole thing made Sakura want to scream! After more than two years she had finally gotten Sasuke in a position where they could actually talk to him, and all she was doing was staring at a fire!

It wasn't like there wasn't anything to talk about. She just could think of anything to start a conversation with.

Maybe she should apologize. _Yeah, that'll work_, Sakura told herself sarcastically. '_Sorry I almost killed you_'…it just didn't seem the right way to start a conversation.

She looked over to Naruto. Why the hell had he finally chosen now to shut up? Okay, so Jiraiya was dead… _I shouldn't be so hard on him_, the girl told herself. Sasuke had been a distraction from his grief. Now that the rescue was over with, Naruto had drifted right back to what had previously been on his mind.

Looking back to Sasuke, Sakura racked her brain for something, anything to talk about. Not just with Sasuke, but Naruto too. If anything, he needed something to keep him from dwelling on the old man's death more than she needed to reconnect with her teammate.

"Oh! I have some food if either of you is hungry," Sakura said before turning around to search through the backpack on the ground behind her. After what had just happened, she was completely famished. Naruto was always hungry, and Sasuke had been unconscious for almost a whole day. There was no way the two of them didn't need something to eat.

On cue, Naruto's stomach rumbled. As she handed him a small package, the kunoichi wondered if he had eaten anything since lunch. Naruto just looked at the small square of packaged provisions, then back up to Sakura. "Food rations?"

Sakura raised an eyebrow at his comment. "I didn't exactly have time to go shopping you know," the girl grumbled. Thanks to that stupid comment she had made to Tsunade, Sakura ended up doing a rush job of gathering supplies near the end to make sure she got Sasuke out before the Hokage did something to stop her.

When she offered one to Sasuke, he merely held out his hand and she tossed it over. Then, he went back to staring at nothing while looking in her general direction while Naruto continued to look at the giant scroll.

"I…didn't mean to do it you know," Sakura finally said to Sasuke.

"Hn?"

"Technically, you left the village as a Genin who had yet to undergo a year of training," Sakura told him. "By the letter of the law, you couldn't have been punished worse than a few months of community service. I mean, you _killed_ Orochimaru and took off instead of seizing power. You killed Itachi, _and_ another member of the Akatsuki! You aren't a bad person Sasuke, you didn't deserve to die." Sakura lowered her head and looked down at the grass. There were half a dozen more reasons of curse, but she didn't she could tell him. They all revolved around things like friendship and comrades, something Sakura wasn't even sure Sasuke really understood anymore.

Sasuke just shrugged. "It doesn't matter. It's done with now."

The emotionless reply made Sakura want to knock his head off and cry at the same time. This wasn't the Sasuke she remembered, the one she had wanted to save. Two years of being all alone, of having to watch his back and never let down his guard, of never showing a hint of weakness, was this what it had done to him?

"So, what are you going to do now?" Naruto asked, his first question to Sasuke since everything had quieted down.

Sasuke looked over to the former Leaf ninja with an unreadable expression. He stared at the Genin for a moment, and took another bite of his food. "After I get done eating, I'm going to head out."

The answer didn't surprise Naruto. "Don't."

One of Sasuke's eyebrows rose at Naruto's response. He wasn't begging, and if it was a demand, there wasn't any heat to it. "If you're going to start going on about that bonds crap, then I'll tell you now to save your breath."

Naruto smirked. "Naw, I know you're not the type of guy to go for that stuff," he replied. "And quite frankly, I'm not going to make the mistake of getting in your way when you want to leave for a second time, especially in the shape I'm in right now."

"Then what is it?" Sasuke asked.

"Me and Sakura wore ourselves out dragging your sorry butt out of that place," Naruto told him with a smirk. "I think I managed to loose anyone following us, but that won't keep them running in circles forever. The way I see it, the least you can do is-"

Sasuke threw the wrapping of the food ration into the fire. "You two are the reason I was in there in the first place."

"Whatever happened to 'it doesn't matter'?" Naruto countered. He took the last bite of his ration, and gladly got rid of the trash. Naruto hated those stupid ninja rations; they tasted like stale cardboard. "Just let us get a few hours of sleep. When we wake up, you can go without us bothering you ever again."

_ARE YOU INSANE_? Sakura mentally shouted to Naruto. After everything they just went through, he was just willing to let Sasuke walk off with a quick goodbye. While Sakura knew Sasuke's departure from her life would have been the likely outcome from the very beginning, she was at least willing to _try_ and convince him to stay.

The very first thought that popped into his head was that Naruto was lying. But then Sasuke reminded himself that he was dealing with Naruto, not the usual kind of people that he'd been around for the past couple of years, and threw that possibility away. He considered just heading out on his own right then and there, but that had its problems. Naruto and Sakura wouldn't be able to stop him, but they would chase after him, and three people left a much more visible trail than just one.

If staying meant he'd have a lot less trouble in the long run… "Fine," Sasuke finally agreed.

With the deal struck, Naruto went to get their stuff out so he could finally get some sleep. Sakura may have rested up in preparation for their raid, but Naruto had been walking around the village until midnight, and the physical exertion had him ready to collapse.

After grabbing Sakura's backpack, Naruto dumped everything out and looked around at the assorted equipment. It hadn't been nearly as much as he was expecting. "Hey, where's the rest of the gear?"

The kunoichi rolled her eyes. Sometimes, she wondered if Naruto was unable to talk and think at the same time. "That's all I could bring without advertising I was running away Naruto. If I had known you were going to show up when you did, I would have had gathered more things and had you carry them. Everything in there was for me and Sasuke, I didn't pack for three people."

That was going to be a problem, Sakura realized. She had taken rations so they wouldn't have to waste time gathering food. With Naruto's appetite added to the mix, she didn't know if she brought enough anymore. If they did take time to forage, or even just caught something on the way and cooked it, that would mean all the more time for whatever ninja were sent from Konoha to catch up.

Naruto simply groaned in complaint. He looked around for something to make up for this little setback, and found it within reach. "Okay, then I call the sleeping bag," he told her before gabbing onto it before Sakura could protest, or move to snatch it away.

"NARUTO!" Sakura yelled at the other ninja while anger twisted her face.

With Sakura giving him the dreaded look all extremely pissed off women seemed to know, Naruto looked around the camp for either another option to his sleeping arrangement, or something to distract her. Finding nothing, he looked back at the rolled up outdoor bed, and then over to Sakura. Something very peculiar came to mind. "Hey wait a second…"

Sakura's scowl lessened a little bit as Naruto's voice became a bit more attentive. "What?"

"You said you only packed for you and Sasuke, but there's only one sleeping bag." The look on Naruto's face slowly became less thoughtful, and a mischievous grin appeared took its place. "…and you call _me_ a pervert Sakura?"

The question made Sakura flinch. "H-Hey! Now wait just a second!" Sakura looked away from Naruto as the blond was barely able to stop himself from snickering. She glanced over to the other member of her group and found herself sweating. _Even SASUKE'S looking at me like I'm a weirdo now_, she cried.

He didn't have as big a scandalized expression as Naruto, one of his eyebrows had just risen a few centimeters, but that was saying a _lot_ when it came to Sasuke.

"It's not like that!" Sakura assured the raven-haired shinobi while frantically waving her hands. "I only had one at my house, and…" Finally, she just turned back to the blond teenager who had started all this. "Fine Naruto! You take it!" If that would keep Sasuke and Naruto from thinking she was like that…

_Wait a second_, she told herself while the young man in orange jump suit quickly threw off said apparel and slipped inside the dark brown sleeping bag. As he zipped himself up, Sakura found herself wondering just how the hell had Naruto tricked her out of the finest sleeping arrangements they had.

A few seconds later, Naruto was asleep and snoring.

With her sleeping bag taken from her, Sakura looked over to the boy sitting to her right. She tried to think of something to say, something that would show Sasuke that they all needed to stick together now. She needed something to convince him to stay with her.

"We need to put out the fire," Sasuke said, stopping Sakura's attempt to develop an argument against splitting up. "If you're cold, then put on some of the clothes you packed for me for the extra insulation."

As he started to rise, Sakura quickly blurted out the first thing that popped into her head. "Why did you leave us?" The demanding tone, and yet desperate at the some time made Sakura freeze. It was a question she had wanted to know since the day Sasuke left, and yet…she knew there would be answer that would cause her anything but pain. But still, she continued. "I…we could have been happy Sasuke. When I look at you now…even after you've gotten your revenge-"

Sasuke looked over to the kunoichi and cut her off with his stare. Happiness? She was still going on about that? All such talk did was prove to Sasuke she understood nothing, and never would.

He didn't really care if she knew or not, having to justify himself to Sakura wasn't important. Still, if it would shut her up… "The goals in my life have never been about happiness. Orochimaru offered me a better chance of success than Konoha could. He offered me power that I could never had obtained through normal training methods, while Konoha had already assured me that I would never be able to use my abilities to their fullest. That was all it boiled down to in the end."

What he said, and his tone made Sakura clench her fist. That was all it boiled down to? Did he not even think of the bonds between her, himself, and Naruto _worth_ considering? "Do you…regret it, even just a little?"

Sasuke turned his head away and scanned the tree line. Despite the distraction Sakura posed, he still needed to keep watch. Getting back to the question, he did think it over before answering. "…I guess, at least…a little. Everyone has regrets and second thoughts. I'm no different."

The answer made her look up at his face. However, he wasn't done talking, and Sakura couldn't get a word in edgewise. "But, I also know I would never have gotten strong enough with just Kakashi training me. If I had simply stayed in the village and been surrounded by distractions, if I had to adhere to their regulations, I would still be training to reach Itachi's level. Or, I would have already fought him and been killed." Done with his explanation, Sasuke looked back down at her with the same lack of expression as before.

As much as she hated to admit it, Sasuke had a point. Sakura knew just which one of those two would have happened as well thanks to Naruto being Itachi's target. Oh, she and Naruto would have been there when the time came, as well as Kakashi, but the end result would have more than likely been what Sasuke had already concluded.

"So…what are you going to do now?" Sakura asked hesitantly.

What was coming was her only real chance to keep Sasuke with her and Naruto. With Itachi dead, his life goal had been fulfilled. The only thing Sakura could see Sasuke doing now was…well, nothing. With the one major purpose in his life completed, he would be directionless, at least for a little while. If she would ever have a chance of talking him into traveling with them, now was the time.

For a moment, Sasuke just considered lying to her. After years of being under Orochimaru, it would be easy for him to disappear and never be found by any nation again. Considering that, it would be easy for anyone who knew anything about him to believe Sasuke could just fade away into the night.

But at the last second, he decided to just tell the girl the truth.

"There's someone that I need to kill."

Sakura blinked. That didn't make any sense; until she remembered something about their mutual enemy. "Wait, that body we found next to yours wasn't Itachi's?" It had been pretty…mutilated. In fact, the only identifiable thing about the body had been the cloak laying on the floor, most everything else had been a charred mess. It wouldn't have been the first time she ran into Akatsuki's doppelganger technique.

When Sasuke shook his head, Sakura just got more confused.

"I guess I should start at the beginning," Sasuke said after a moment of thought. He sighed and looked up at the sky in thought. The question was, just when was that?

"Although the archives of my clan might mention the Mangekyo Sharingan, it does not offer any instruction on how to obtain it," he began. "Even my father, the head of the clan, never knew the answer to that question."

Sakura frowned. The question that begged to be asked was obvious. "Okay, so how did Itachi find out?"

"Somebody told him," Sasuke answered. "In return, he joined Akatsuki." There was more to it, but that was the only important part. "Itachi was the one who did it, but whoever told him the secret was the one who set it in motion. It's also very probable that person also knew what was going to happen when he told Itachi. But even if that isn't the case, the spirits of my clan can never rest in peace while those responsible their death are still alive."

_But how in the heck could he possibly know_-Sakura cut the thought short. Itachi had to have told him. That was the only possible way Sasuke would be thinking such a thing. But why?

Hell, was it even true? She could see such a monster lying to Sasuke with his last breath just to make sure he never found peace.

_No wait, that doesn't make any sense_, Sakura told herself. Itachi's corpse had shown he'd died instantly; there wouldn't have been time for a last minute confession. She supposed he could have told Sasuke before the fight begun, but that would have meant he had been expecting to _loose_ against his little brother. That was a scenario she couldn't envision.

Maybe he had just been overconfident, and told Sasuke what he wanted to know.

"So I take it that means-" Sakura stopped in mid sentence to yawn. She blinked at herself as the action reminded her of just how tired she was. Although she had taken the food pill just a few hours ago, her body had been completely exhausted beforehand, greatly decreasing its effects.

She tried to shake it off; she couldn't fall asleep right now, or have weariness cloud her mind. "I take it that means you'll be going after the rest of Akatsuki then?"

Sasuke made an almost undetectable shrug. "That is my only lead, so I don't have much of a choice. Even if none of them are the person I'm looking for, I can obtain information about whoever it is I'm chasing and follow the trail from there."

With that said, Sakura knew she and Naruto could convince Sasuke to come with them. She looked away from the other ninja to hide her smile, and then over to Naruto in _her_ stolen sleeping bag in order to get rid of it.

It looked like it would be easy to get Sasuke to come with them after all.

--

"LADY TSUNADE! LADY TSUNADE!"

The door to the living room banged open, and Tsunade looked up from her spot on the couch. The light coming in from the hallway blinded her for a minute. She dropped the bottle in her hand, and barely reacted in time to catch the thing before it could hit the floor.

She looked up at her student, and frowned at the intrusion. The girl knew better to barge into her room when she was trying to be alone with her thoughts. But, if she was barging in at a moment like this… "What is it Shizune?"

The younger ninja ran into the room with a worried look on her face. "It's Sakura and Naruto. Something awful has happened!"

_That_ what this was all about? Tsunade had the urge to smack the girl. But settled for rolling her eyes at Shizune's distraught face. "So?"

"And so this is how the Third's replacement reacts to the people she entrusted turning traitor?"

As soon as she heard the voice, Shizune's frantic actions fell into place. The young woman had known Sakura was going to try and break Sasuke out, and although getting Naruto to go along with it had been an unexpected twist, Tsunade wasn't all that surprised. If anything, she was mad at herself for not predicting it.

Tsunade put her anger over her lack of ability to predict the future aside. She looked up to see Danzou coming into the room, with the two village elders on his heels. _And so it begins_, Tsunade told herself.

"Tsunade, a little over an hour ago, your student, and the Leaf's Jinchuuriki, Naruto Uzumaki, attacked the detention facility where Sasuke Uchiha was being held. After murdering three medical ninja, they attempted to sneak out of the prison. When they were discovered, Sakura Haruno freed multiple prisoners, and were able to escape in the ensuing chaos," the female elder Koharu explained as she followed behind the bandaged man alongside Homura, the male leader of the village council.

The Hokage looked up to the old man and slowly moved to set down her saké on the table. Although she had known there would be a few broken bones caused by the girl, the death of Leaf ninja was something Sakura would have avoided at all cost. But there was something else odd about his statement that drew even more attention. "Medical ninja?" Tsunade asked.

This time, it was Danzou who answered. "At your student's insistence, I ordered a team of medics to go and examine the prisoner."

He was lying, that much was obvious to Tsunade from the moment she picked out the misplacement of the medical ninja. Perhaps not a lie outright, but one by omission in any case. _But why_? Tsunade asked herself. That was the important question, and one she didn't have an answer for as of yet.

Tsunade let out a long sigh and pushed herself out of the seat. After getting the cricks out of her neck, she looked back to the others. "In that case, I will assemble a team of ninja immediately," she told them before looking over to Danzou with a glare that would send most men running. "Unless of course, you would like to undermine my authority once again, and perhaps cause the death of yet more shinobi."

Much to Tsunade's annoyance, the man didn't even flinch as he made his reply. "I was merely doing what was best in the end. If not, who knows how long it would have taken for us to realize that Uchiha had escaped."

"Tsunade, the Leaf must re-capture its Jinchuuriki before the other villages learn of this fiasco," Homura told her.

The seemingly young woman looked over to the council members that Danzou had dragged in with him. With the two of them there, she couldn't allow herself to be outmaneuvered by the man in any way. The only problem was that she had no idea what had really brought them to her room at this late hour. Was it Danzou's instance, or their own need to find a reason for her replacement?

The answer to that question was what determined by just how wide a margin she needed to beat him.

"If you think the lives of three trained medical ninja are worth a few measly hours of pursuit, then you are an even bigger fool than I originally thought," Tsunade told him with a frown before she stormed out of the room; and ordering Shizune to follow right before turning down the hallway.

After Shizune caught up with her mentor, she looked over to the woman's face with a worried expression. The younger medic saw how much the older one was fighting to keep her mind focused on the task at hand, and then reached over to help support her once they were out of sight. "Are you alright?"

Tsunade simply shook her head.

"Once we get to your office, I could draw the alcohol out of your system and fix a remedy to deaden its effects," the young woman told her.

"It's not that." Tsunade pushed Shizune off of her, and turned to look out the window and over to the Hokage monument. She leaned over, and rested her hands on the windowsill The face of her grandfather seemed to be frowning, she knew it had to be her imagination, a trick of the night's shadows, but still…

"Do you know why my grandfather founded this village?" Tsunade asked without looking back to the girl.

Shizune blinked. She had read about it in the history books of course. Every ninja was taught it from practically their fist day at the academy. "The First Hokage wanted to create a place where all of his friends and family could live in safety and grow to be strong. A place where we could form ties of unbreakable camaraderie."

The answer that seemed to be quoted directly from a textbook made Tsunade laugh softly. "Yeah, um…that's a complete load of crap."

As her student's mouth dropped open and her eyes enlarged until Shizune's face showed nothing but shock at both Tsunade's disregard fro her grandfather's words, and the way she had said it was a lie, the Hokage covered her mouth to keep the noise coming out of her mouth from carrying too far. Once she had gotten herself back under control, Tsunade wiped a tear from her eye, and then looked back to Shizune.

"But…but…but…"

Tsunade waved her hand at the girl to try and get her back under control, then turned to look at her grandfather's face, and the one beside it. "Well, maybe that isn't entirely inaccurate. Uncle wouldn't have run the village like he did if that wasn't also the case. But, the real reason he founded The Village Hidden in the Leafs was because of politics. Or rather, because of his hatred of them."

"Huh?" Shizune mumbled as she snapped out of her stupor.

"You know about the village that represented the Land of Fire before this one, correct?" Tsunade asked her as she turned to face the girl.

"Not much. I haven't heard much anything about the Village Hidden Within the Magma besides its name, and that is where a lot of our older clans come from." Although, in her defense, no one else alive in Konoha did either. All she knew that it had been in the mouth of a volcano many miles to the south thanks to some old maps. There was nothing left of it today, and hadn't been for several hundred years.

Tsunade sighed, then looked back to her grandfather's face. "Well, according to the Second Hokage, my grandfather and a handful of other ninja that were trained in the Hidden Magma were part of dozen of factions vying for power. When my grandfather took over his faction, he just decided the hell with it, and left, taking whoever wanted to come with him. There's more to the story, I think his best friend, or wife, someone close to him at least tried to kill him one morning, and that's when he decided to get the hell out. Of course they were branded traitors and hunted down; but that's not really relevant to what I'm trying to say."

When it looked like Tsunade had lost her place in her story, Shizune crossed her arms, and frowned at the woman. "Which is?"

The question made Tsunade flinch in surprise. "Oh right, the point." She let out a sigh and collected her thoughts. "Well, long story short. The whole reason this village was founded in the first place was for the want to get away from things like this. People like Danzou, who think of only the institution, not the individual."

"But then, am I really all that better?" Tsunade mumbled to herself.

ANBU guards redirected, a known security risk ignored, and purposely wasted time when haste was needed. If someone else had taken the same actions Tsunade did and she had been the one on the sidelines, Tsunade would have done everything she could to bring that person down.

Shizune shook her head. "I don't think that at all." The woman was just letting her emotions could her vision. Once she got everything out of her system, Tsunade would be back to thinking strait again. "You're doing what's right."

_But right according to whom_? Tsunade asked herself.

Naruto…if she had done as Danzou insisted, forcefully kept him in the village, would things have been better? Would they have turned out worse?

The fear of a Jinchuuriki was well founded after all. The older the vessel got, the more the more control the demon inside them gained as the seal weakened. While the Fourth had tried to fix this problem by creating a seal that could be strengthened over time, with the Third, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru gone, no one else in the village had enough experience with sealing jutsu to fix it.

Now, with the seal weakening, Naruto was off in the world without anyone to watch over him.

Then there was Uchiha. If he was with Naruto…Tsunade didn't know if that only made the situation worse.

Should she send a team out to re-capture them, or make sure whoever went was doomed to failure? If Naruto lost control over the fox again, the amount of destruction would be catastrophic. But just thinking of things in terms of only numbers was the first step in a very slippery slope towards a destination she never wanted to end up.

Trust in Naruto to keep his control? Or play it safe at the cost of the boy?

Even if Tsunade did end up sending a team to recover Naruto, would that make him loose control in the end?

Tsunade looked up to her teacher's face in the monument, and sighed. _How the hell did you always make this look so easy_?

When no answer came, she just reached over, and put her arm around Shizune's shoulder for some support. "Well come on, let's go mull over personnel reports for an hour or two before we decide to send out a tracking squad." Then, the smile faded from her face, and Tsunade led Shizune down the hall more than leaned on her. "Also, I want the files on the three men Sakura killed, and their autopsy reports."

Shizune nodded. "You thought something was off about that too then?"

There was no need to give the stupid question an answer. The number of people Sakura had killed during her career as a shinobi totaled zero. Although she had gotten into plenty of battles, the girl had never been the one to land the deathblow. Now she had supposedly slaughtered three ninja from her own village that had been sent to look after the man she went in to save?

Either Danzou didn't know the first thing about Tsunade's appetence, or he thought Tsunade was about as dumb as dirt. So either those three medics were doing something that made Sakura angry enough to kill, or they had been killed to keep something quiet. The answer to _that_ question was what Tsunade needed to finally pull the man down; she had to find it.

--

Naruto found himself brought out of his sleep by one of the rudest awakenings he ever had in his whole life. The teenager rolled over in his sleeping bag as something kicked him in the ribs. He immediately shot up, only to have the evil thing Sakura had lent him keep Naruto from gaining enough motion to stay there, and he quickly fell back to the ground, hitting his head on the dirt.

"OW! Hey! Who did that?"

After opening his eyes, Naruto saw that they were still in the pre-dawn hours. He couldn't have gotten much sleep, but with Sakura already up and packing, it looked like the little he had was all there was to get. In fact, Sakura had probably given Naruto a few minutes more than she got, what with her almost fully packed and all.

Above him, Sasuke stood staring at the boy with that damn emotionless expression of his. "Sasuke!" Instead of saying anything back, the other ninja simply turned around and started to walk away, and out of Naruto's current line of sight. "Hey! Come back here!" He tried to get up again, and ended up hitting his head on the ground again. "Somebody get me out of this thing!"

Rolling her eyes at her teammate's idiocy, Sakura finished putting the last of her things in her backpack, and walked over to let Naruto out of _her_ sleeping bag. Hopefully, this incident would keep him out of it for a long time to come.

Once he was free, Naruto jumped up, quickly thanked Sakura, and ran after Sasuke; who hadn't gotten very far. "Hey Sasuke hold up a second!"

The other teenager's demand made Sasuke roll his eyes. Common sense said to just turn around and knock the blond out, running would only make Naruto chase him while shouting very loudly; which wasn't a good thing when people were trying to chase you down. But then, attacking him would cause Sakura to loose it, also causing a lot of noise and wasting time.

So, against his better judgment, Sasuke turned around to glare at Naruto. "What?"

The edge to Sasuke's voice brought Naruto to a halt. It took him a few seconds to find his voice. "Uh…so, what're you going to do now?"

Was _everyone_ going to be asking him that now? "None of your business," Sasuke told him evenly before turning away and heading in the opposite direction from the former Leaf ninja.

"Wait!" Naruto yelled as he took another step and held out a hand as if to grab Sasuke, although the teen was far too much out of reach.

"Are you going to try and stop me again, Naruto?" Sasuke asked before reaching behind his waist for the sword that rested there. Now that the other ninja had some rest, Naruto could very well put up a fight. Sasuke hadn't though the boy was that deceptive, but then, they were ninja after all. "If you get in my way, I'll kill you this time."

He looked back at Naruto with his Sharingan, guaranteeing the end to any fight before it even started. If Naruto even tried to move, Sasuke would see the signs, and trap him in a Genjutsu that very instant. Even if he could counter the illusion, the distance between them was son short that the one second it took Naruto to do that would be all Sasuke needed to get in a deathblow.

Sakura paused in the middle of rolling up her sleeping bag to look at the two boys. They weren't going to start fighting already, where they? She just groaned and looked to the sky for strength. Once she told Sasuke what had happened, Sakura was sure they'd be sticking together.

"I…I need your help!" Naruto shouted as he bowed his head slightly to break eye contact.

The almost frantic tone to Naruto's voice actually aroused Sasuke's curiosity. "What?" He saw that behind Naruto, Sakura stopped packing and looked up from her things.

With Sasuke's question asked, Naruto took his time to try and organize what he was going to say. It had been something he had been thinking about since he and Sakura actually got Sasuke out of the Konoha prison; when his mind wasn't distracted by the fact he's never see a lot of his friends again.

"It's…it's about those Akatsuki guys," Naruto began. When he looked up to see Sasuke had deactivated his Sharingan and looked interested; at least as far as Sasuke could look interested while keeping that emotionless mask on his face anyway.

Now the only problem was, Naruto had no idea how to _keep_ him interested. Since Sasuke had been with Orochimaru, he had to of known that Akatsuki was after the tailed beasts; hell Sasuke had probably known that even before his defection from Konoha thanks to Itachi. With Itachi dead, Naruto couldn't offer himself as bait, so that option to keep him around was out.

Finally, he just decided to just lay it out for the young man, and let Sasuke decide. Tricking the other guy into helping him wasn't really something Naruto felt comfortable with anyway. Besides, he doubted that such a thing was even possible.

"A few hours before Sakura and me broke you out, we got a report that Jiraiya infiltrated Akatsuki's headquarters and got into a fight with their leader," Naruto began. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to keep his emotions from overflowing. He needed to keep a cool head for this. After making sure he wasn't going to get all teary eyed or something, he looked back up to Sasuke.

"Jiraiya, the Sanin that trained you, right?" Sasuke asked evenly. Orochimaru had mentioned something about Naruto being handed his own elite ninja to train with during the first few weeks of his time in the snake ninja's organization; the memory still left him feeling a bit…agitated. "I take it he was killed then?"

Naruto nodded wildly in response to the question. When his head dipped down for the last movement, it didn't raise back up "I want…I wanna kill this guy! But…Jiraiya was like the best ninja in the village, and he could just barely get a hit in edgewise on this bastard!" Naruto grit his teeth. "He was way better than me, and he still lost! So, if my teacher couldn't take this guy down, I know I'll get slaughtered if I go up against him on my own," Naruto said as he looked up to his friend's face. "Please, help me! I can't do I alone, and even if Sakura came with me, we'd both die.

"Sasuke, You're the strongest guy I know. You even took Orochimaru down on your own! If I want to have even the smallest chance a killing this guy, then I need people that are at least as strong as Jiraiya, or better…like you."

Revenge. That was something Sasuke could understand completely. The pain written on Naruto's face…he had seen it in the mirror many years before. It was almost enough to get him to agree…almost.

The fact of the matter was, if Naruto knew he wasn't strong enough to do something on his own, then Sasuke didn't want the blond slowing him down. It was the same as it had been years ago. Naruto had talent, Sasuke had long since become aware of that fact, but he lacked…something. Maybe it was focus, or control, or just a killer instinct, but the fact was that during a battle, Naruto had never been able to pull his act together until the fight was half over.

"In case you're wondering," Sakura cut in as she walked over with their things. "Naruto found out about all this from a toad Jiraiya had with him during the battle. The summon also saw Pain's techniques. Since you're heading after this guy anyway, I think it would be best to take us with you."

Naruto looked back at Sakura with a frown, then over to Sasuke. "Wait a second…YOU WERE GOING AFTER AKATSUKI ANYWAY?" he shouted to the Uchiha. Then he turned over to look at Sakura, looking at her with a waterfall of tears in his eyes. "And you just let me go on like that?"

Ignoring Naruto for the moment, Sasuke turned to face Sakura. "And I suppose that if I refuse, then that information won't be given?" he asked, the minor irritation he felt previously completely gone.

"Well, it wouldn't be much of a bargaining chip if-"

"No," Naruto told him in a completely serious tone on top of Sakura's reply. "If you don't want to help me, then I'll tell you everything you want to know about this guy right now, and you can go and do whatever you want."

Sasuke frowned at him in curiosity. Some things about Naruto he would never understand. "Why?"

Naruto just gave him a smile. "Because you're my friend," he explained before the mask fell off, and his depression reappeared. "And I don't want this guy to kill you too." From what he had heard, there was no way Sasuke was beating this Pain guy on his own. Plus, a small part of him was hoping that after hearing the information, maybe Sasuke would decide to stick around.

"And if I just walk away?" Sasuke asked as he raised an eyebrow.

Naruto smirked at the question. "Then I'm just going to have to kill him first."

The show of bravado made Sasuke roll his eyes and turn away. A much as Sasuke hated to admit it, with his platoon gone, he did need replacements. Akatsuki still had him greatly outnumbered. Still…Naruto and Sakura? The thought of having to put of with their presence again left a bad taste in his mouth.

Then again, it wasn't the first time he had done something unnerving.

Finally, he made a decision. "If you're coming, then hurry it up. I'll leave you behind if you start to slow me down."

"HEY!" Naruto shouted as he followed the other boy until they were side by side. He looked over, and scowled at Sasuke. "Just who the hell put you in charge, huh?" After all, Naruto was the one with all the information; Sasuke was the one who was helping him!

"_I_ did," Sasuke replied as he turned his head to look at Naruto.

Behind her teammates, Sakura watched the two of them walk thorough the forest as she followed behind. For a moment, an image of the past replaced that of the present. She saw a scene of two thirteen-year-old boys having the same argument they were now, and couldn't help but smile.

--

It was just half an hour before dawn, and Tsunade found herself wishing she had something to drink. She paced back and forth in front of her desk with a worried frown covering her face. Sober again thanks to Shizune, memories of Jiraiya were starting to creep back into her thoughts. If only she had just…

The door opened, and Tsunade quickly looked up. She was glad for something else to focus on. A few seconds later, and all the shinobi she had arranged to chase of Naruto had arrived except…Tsunade waited another minute, and looked around the room. "Lee isn't coming?"

The boy's teacher coughed into his hand. "Uh yes, about that. You see, Lee had a bit of an accident last night while working out. He put one too many self-imposed rules on himself and…well, long story short, he's got some pulled ligaments. I didn't know until I went to wake him up."

Tsunade simply shook her head at Guy's explanation. Those two and their rules… If they were unable to do one set of exercises, then how did they expect to complete a second set when they were completely worn out from the first failed attempt?

_Then again_,_things might be better this way_, the Hokage told herself. She looked at the assembled ninja. Although most belonged to the same team, she had chosen each of them in correspondence to their target's abilities. Tenzou, or Yamato as he was being called without his mask, would be able to get Naruto under control if worst came to worst. The rest of Team Guy would be squared off against the former Team Kakashi. Then there was the final member of their group: Kakashi himself.

"Tsunade, if Lee isn't coming, then shouldn't we take on a sixth member to replace him?" Kakashi asked the older woman.

The question made Tsunade thoughtful for a moment. As much as she hated to admit it, there wasn't a group of people better suited to the task at hand._With their diverse strengths, and Yamato filling in for Lee, Team Guy is to be the perfect counter for Team Kakashi…the former team Kakashi that is_, she reminded herself.

Finally coming to a decision, Tsunade shook her head. "No. Although another long-range fighter would be useful, it would take too much time to drill what the ninja would need to learn in order to fall into synch with the rest of you. Time is of the essence here. Move out as soon as you are ready."

Tsunade took in a deep breath. She knew that she was going to need a few drinks after this. "You are to recapture both Sasuke Uchiha, and Naruto Uzumaki, and return them to Konoha by whatever means necessary. Sakura Haruno is to be killed on sight."

The harsh order made Kakashi frown. "Lady Tsunade I know that-"

"You heard my order, now go!"

As soon as the group of shinobi disappeared from the room in a cloud of smoke, Tsunade sat on top of her desk and looked down at the ground in despair. Her friends, her family, her love, and now her student. How many more people close to her would have to die in order to keep Konoha safe?


End file.
